POETRY AND 
MORALS v» v» 



SUGGESTIVE AND ILLUSTRATIVE 
ANECDOTES AND POETICAL 
QUOTATIONS FOR THE 
USE OF PREACHERS 

r> 

By 

Rev. Louis Albert Banks, D.D. 

Pastor First Methodist- Episcopal Church 
Cleveland, Ohio 



FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 
NEW YORK AND LONDON 
MDCCCC 



75597 



Two Copies Received 
NOV 14 1900 

second copy 

Delivered to 

ORDER OIViSION 
NOV 19 I90U 



Copyright, 1900, by 
Funk & Wagnalls Company 

[Printed in the United States of America] 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



Illustrations are the feathers to the preacher's 
arrow. They are windows that let the sunlight into 
what otherwise to many hearers would be gloomy 
discussions. They serve as appetizers to people with 
a delicate appetite for spiritual things. The element 
of entertainment must not be left out of consideration 
in public speech of any kind. While the purpose to 
be simply an entertainer would be a low one for a 
preacher of the Gospel, still his preaching will have 
but little effect for good unless it is entertaining. 
The most striking figure used in the New Testament 
to describe the preacher's work is that of a fisher- 
man. Now a fisherman has to deal with creatures 
that are not anxious to be caught. Their attention 
must be attracted and the bait used must appeal to 
them strongly in order to accomplish his purpose. 
So in the work of the fisherman in the spiritual realm. 
The sinner is not anxious to be saved ; his evil habits 
and the sinfulness of his heart work together to make 
him wary of the preacher and his message. If he is 
to be caught for Christ, he must be entertained, his 
attention must be attracted, and the sermon must be 
illuminated. 



vi 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



I have sought in this book, not only to give a large 
number of fresh illustrations from current life, but 
also to point the moral for several hundred poetical 
quotations. I am satisfied that there are great possi- 
bilities in poetical illustrations. Many preachers use 
them far too rarely. Neither in my own preach- 
ing nor in my observation of other preachers have I 
ever seen an apt poetical quotation used in a sermon 
without the immediate effect being to quicken the in- 
terest of every hearer. The large sale of " Anecdotes 
and Morals " has encouraged me to believe that my 
work in this direction is generously appreciated by 
my brethren in the ministry, and I hope that the 
present volume will be still more valuable to them. 

Louis Albert Bauks. 

Cleveland, October 16, 1900. 



POETRY AND MORALS* 



THE MANNERS OF THE SKY. 

Emerson has given us a beautiful picture of the 
humanness of heaven, of the tenderness of God, and 
of the glad good cheer and hope of immortality, in 
these beautiful lines taken from his poem entitled 
"Threnody": 

Eevere the Maker ; fetch thine eye 
Up to his style, and manners of the sky. 
Not of adamant and gold 
Built he heaven stark and cold ; 
No, hut a nest of bending reeds, 
Flowering grass and scented weeds ; 
Or like a traveler's fleeing tent, 
Or bow above the tempest bent ; 
Built of tears and sacred flames, 
And virtue reaching to its aims ; 
Built of furtherance and pursuing, 
Not of spent deeds, but of doing. 
Silent rushes the swift Lord 
Through ruined systems still restored, 
Broad-sowing, bleak and void to bless, 
Plants with worlds the wilderness ; 
Waters with tears of ancient sorrow 
Apples of Eden ripe to-morrow. 
House and tenant go to ground, 
Lost in God, in Godhead found. 
1 



2 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



THE ELIXIR OF LIFE. 

There is something pathetic in the ceaseless strug- 
gle of mankind to overcome disease and perpetuate 
human life a little longer on the earth. One serum 
and elixir follows another among the inventions of 
the scientists. Through the ages man has endeavored 
to get past the flaming sword set to guard the tree of 
life. Man has never given up the search for the 
fountain of youth, and the search was never more 
persistent than at the present time. The science of 
medicine has grown out of this instinct of self-preser- 
vation, and on it have been grafted superstitions and 
strange methods of treatment for the purpose of 
postponing if not defeating death. From many thou- 
sand years ago we get fragments of writing by Hermes 
Trismegistus, who is involved in Egyptian mythology 
and legend, teaching that there are certain remedies 
for disease that have a tendency to prolong life, with 
the possibility of insuring earthly immortality. The 
Greek historian Zosimus, in his writings, referred to 
drugs that would prevent the decay of the principle 
of life ; but he died in the middle of the fifth century 
before Christ, when fifty years old. Then we have 
the Persian physician Khazes, who delved deep into 
the mysteries of medicine and announced that he had 
found an elixir ; but he died in his fifty- third year. 
Roger Bacon early in the thirteenth century discov- 
ered a serum which he believed held the life energies 
of the human body; but he died. Then came Al- 
fonso, " the wise, " who hoped to discover the elixir 



THE RELIGION OF HOPE. 



3 



of life ; but he, too, died at the age of sixty-three. 
Ponce de Leon, the picturesque searcher for the 
spring of immortal youth, found death but not life. 
And so Pasteur is dead, and Koch will die. And 
how short human life seems after all these, compared 
even to that simple record of Methuselah in the Book 
of Genesis which says in sublime simplicity, "And 
all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty 
and nine years " ; but the record closes with the fatal 
words, "and he died." This instinct of life which 
is in us all can be satisfied only with inn -mortality. 
Christianity with its divine promise of immortal life 
in heaven can alone satisfy the longings of the human 
heart. Christ said : " I am come that ye might have 
life, and that ye might have it more abundantly. " 

THE RELIGION OF HOPE. 

Christianity is above all others the religion of hope. 
Christ arouses in the most despairing the hope of re- 
demption, promising a new chance and better oppor- 
tunity to the sinner. Tennyson brings this ray of 
Christian hope into the sad life of Queen Guinevere. 
It was too late for her to avert the sorrow and misery 
wrought by her sin, so far as this world was con- 
cerned, but heaven had its ray of hope for her. 
What pathos in the words Tennyson lets fall from 
her lips : 

I think there was a hope, 
Except he mock'd when he spake of hope ; 
His hope he call'd it ; but he never mocks, 
Tor mockery is the fume of little hearts. 



4 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



And blessed be the king, who hath forgiven 
My wickedness to him, and left me hope 
That in mine own heart I can live down sin 
And be his mate hereafter in the heavens 
Before high God. 

A GOOD NAME. 

An honored man has recently retired from the 
bench of the supreme court in the State of New York, 
after continuous service as a judge of the supreme 
court for thirty-six years. He had passed the age 
limit seven years, but so highly were his services ap- 
preciated that the State legislature passed a law giv- 
ing the governor authority to continue his assignment. 
It is estimated that he has tried more than one hun- 
dred thousand issues of law and fact. So universally 
was he regarded to be an upright and wise judge that 
since his first candidacy he has been the candidate of 
all parties. What a precious reputation has this man 
won for himself ! It is a striking illustration of the 
truth of Solomon's proverb which says: "A good 
name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and 
loving favor rather than silver and gold." 

NATURE'S RESTFULNESS. 

That sense of restfulness which comes to a tired 
mind or a weary heart through the reliability of nature 
is described by no one more beautifully than by the 
poet Keats. In " Endymion " he has written : 

A thing of beauty is a joy forever ; 

. . . Such the sun, the moon, 



CHARACTER THAT COUNTS. 5 



Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon 
For simple sheep ; and such are daffodils 
With the green world they live in ; and clear rills 
That for themselves a cooling covert make 
'Gainst the hot season ; the mid-forest brake, 
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms. 

And again lie says what many of ns have often felt : 

. . . The trees 
That whisper round a temple become soon 
Dear as the temple's self. 



CHARACTER THAT COUNTS. 

A jeweler in a Western town recently fonnd a pre- 
cious treasure in a peculiar place. His home coffee- 
mill was broken and he took it apart to find what was 
the trouble. He discovered that it had been wrecked 
by the action of a stone of some sort that had even 
cut its way into the metal of the grinders. He took 
the stone to his jewelry store and, putting it under a 
microscope, discovered that it was a large diamond of 
the blue tint variety and worth about two hundred 
dollars. It is thought that the diamond was mixed 
with the coffee when the grain was screened in South 
Africa, where the coffee was raised. The diamond 
was about the size of a coffee-grain and had the same 
dull color. What a striking illustration of the value 
of reality over sham and pretense ! The diamond was 
plain and unpretentious ; but being a diamond, where- 
ever it was found, no matter how humble the circum- 
stances or associations, it was a precious treasure. So 
true character will ever come to its own in the end. 



6 POETRY AND MORALS. 

It may be neglected and forgotten for a while, but 
genuine manhood and womanhood, however humble 
their associations, will make themselves felt, and God 
will honor them in his own good time. 

THE LIMITATIONS OF "WEALTH. 

Thomas Moore has set forth with graphic clearness 
the limitations of wealth in the power to buy immu- 
nity from the approach of the pale horse and his 
rider. Death is no respecter of persons and comes to 
the palace as well as the hovel. Moore's lines are 
true indeed : 

If hoarded gold possessed the power 

To lengthen life's too fleeting hour, 

And purchase from the hand of death 

A little span, a moment's breath, 

How I would love the precious ore ! 

And every hour should swell my store ; 

That when Death came with shadowy pinion, 

To waft me to his bleak dominion, 

I might by bribes my doom delay, 

And bid him call some distant day. 

THE STRUGGLE OF LIFE. 

Many people grow weary in the struggle to over- 
come imperfect conditions, and are ready to cry out 
against the ceaseless efforts which progress requires. 
And yet struggle is the law of life, and it is not well 
for us to give way to that sort of hopeless yearning 
expressed in the lines of William Morris : 



SEEING OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US. 7 



Ah ! good and ill, 
When will your strife the fated measure fill? 
When will the tangled veil be drawn away 
To show us all that un imagined day? 

SEEING OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US. 

A drunkard in New Orleans was recently saved in 
a peculiar manner from continuing his career of dis- 
sipation. The young man in question was of a fine 
family and had splendid gifts, but was going down 
through strong drink as fast as it was possible for a 
man to go. His friends had pleaded with him, but 
he had taken their warnings as an insult. One day 
one of them, who was a court stenographer, deter- 
mined to try a new tack with him. He was sitting 
in a restaurant, when the young man in question 
came in with a companion, and took the table next to 
him, sitting down with his back to him, and not see- 
ing him. He was just enough intoxicated to be talk- 
ative about his private affairs, and on the impulse of 
the moment the stenographer pulled out his note-book 
and took a full shorthand report of every word he 
said. It was the usual maudlin folly of a young man 
with his brain muddled by drink, and included a num- 
ber of highly candid details of his daily life — things 
which, when sober, he would no sooner have spoken 
of to a casual acquaintance than he would have put 
his hand in the fire. The next morning the stenog- 
rapher copied the whole thing neatly and sent it to 
the young man's office. In less than ten minutes he 
came tearing in, his eyes fairly hanging out of their 



s 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



sockets. " G-reat heavens, Charley ! " he gasped, 
"what is this, anyhow?" "It's a stenographic re- 
port of your monolog at the restaurant last evening," 
his friend replied, and gave him a brief explanation. 
"Did I really talk like that ? " he asked faintly. " I 
assure you it is an absolutely verbatim report," was 
the reply. He turned pale and walked out. He 
never drank another drop. There are many men who 
would cease not only the sin of drunkenness, but 
other sins as well, if they could see themselves as 
other people see them. 

AT THE END OF HIS ROPE. 

There is an Oriental legend in regard to the prodi- 
gal son which teaches that the father had forgiven 
the prodigal time and again. Finally the old man 
despaired of his child. He felt that nothing could 
redeem so wayward a son, and expressed that convic- 
tion to him. He predicted that the prodigal, in his 
headlong course from, bad to worse, would ultimately 
arrive at the goal of self-destruction. "But when 
that evil day arrives," urged the old man, "you must 
hang yourself in this room where we now sit. Here 
is the rope. I will be dead and gone long before, but 
promise me you will fulfil my last wish and make 
away with yourself as I direct." To this the prodi- 
gal consented, and not long afterward the aged parent 
was gathered to his fathers. In due time the prodi- 
gal reached, in a painfully literal sense, the end of 
his rope. Making his way to the fatal apartment, he 



THE MUSIC OF DEATH. 



9 



adjusted the noose, commended himself to Provi- 
dence, and swung himself into the air, when down 
fell a trap in the ceiling and a shower of gold rained 
upon him as he arose from the floor with the end of 
the rope in his hands. The promise of God to lost 
sinners is better than that, for the prodigal thus 
dowered again with gold would still have the same 
vicious character which had led him to hang himself 
in despair. But to the prodigal who really comes 
back to God in repentance there is given a new heart 
and a new character, which enriches him with a gold 
far beyond earthly treasure in its power to bless. 

LOVE RENEWING YOUTH. 

The power of love to keep the heart young and to 
renew the youth of the soul is set forth in these 
splendid lines of Emerson in "The World- Soul " : 

Spring still makes spring in the mind 

When sixty years are told ; 
Love wakes anew this throbbing heart, 

And we are never old. 
Over the winter glaciers 

I see the summer glow, 
And through the wind-piled snowdrift 

The warm rosebud below. 

THE MUSIC OF DEATH. 

In Paraguay there is found occasionally a musical 
instrument called the skull-banjo. The manufacture 
has a peculiar history. The Indians of ancient times 



10 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



were constantly engaged in warfare, and their primary- 
aim when thus engaged was to capture the chief of 
the opposing side. When captured, this personage 
was carried to their camp, and there cruelly murdered, 
and it was from his body that this gruesome, curious 
musical instrument was made. After the skull was 
thoroughly dried the top was cut entirely off. Over 
the opening thus made a piece of skin, taken from 
the body, was tightly stretched in the manner of a 
drum. In the back of the skull the two long bones 
from the limbs were inserted. The ends of these 
bones were joined together by one of the ribs from 
the body. Then throughout the length of these bones 
strings made from the skin of the body were tightly 
stretched. The instrument was then played like a 
mandolin or a banjo. The skull was left so that the 
jaws were movable. Therefore with each shake of 
the instrument the jaws wagged, and with any sharp 
jolt the teeth came together with a snap. One of 
these horrid instruments was sold the other day in 
London and brought a large price as a curiosity. 
This repulsive musical instrument suggests, however, 
the degradation which music is often used to cover 
up. The foulest brothels of the city, as well as the 
gilded palatial liquor-saloons, seek to fascinate their 
patrons with music. In the gilded palace as well as 
in the low dance-hall the grinning skull is beneath 
the music and the dance. Sin may put on a fascina- 
ting exterior, but the skull is in the closet, and the 
Bible is true when it says: "The wages of sin is 
death." 



THE ANNOYANCES OF WEALTH. 11 



REMEMBERED MUSIC. 

Thomas Mobre calls attention to the power of a 
strain of music, heard again after years have passed, 
to awaken the deep founts of pathos in the soul : 

When through life unblest we rove, 

Losing all that made life dear, 
Should some notes we used to love, 

In days of boyhood, meet our ear, 
Oh, how welcome breathes the strain ! 

Wakening thoughts that long have slept ; 
Kindling for her smiles again 

In faded eyes that long have wept. 

Like the gale, that sighs along 

Beds of Oriental flowers, 
Is the grateful breath of song, 

That once was heard in happier hours ; 
Filled with balm, the gale sighs on, 

Tho the flowers have sunk in death ; 
So, when pleasure's dream is gone, 

Its memory lives in Music's breath. 

THE ANNOYANCES OF "WEALTH, 

The great truth that the law of compensation comes 
in to add responsibility and peril to the reception of 
any blessing, was humorously illustrated not long 
ago in what in itself is a pathetic story told of the 
Queen of Italy and a poor child. Queen Margharita 
was one day walking in a Roman suburb when she 
noticed a pleasant-faced little girl and spoke to her. 
There was a little conversation, and the Queen asked 
the child what she could do in the way of needle- 



12 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



work. "I can knit stockings, signora," replied the 
girl. "Do you know who I am?" continued the 
Queen. "Yes, signora, you are the Queen." "Well, 
then, make a pair of stockings and send them to the 
palace." A few days afterward the stockings ar- 
rived, and Queen Margharita in return for the gift 
sent the child a beautiful pair of rose-colored stock- 
ings, one filled with sweets and the other with money. 
Next day the Queen received a letter from her little 
friend couched in the following words : " Signora, 
your gift has caused me no end of tears. My father 
collared the money, my brother grabbed the sweets, 
and as for the stockings, why, mother put them on 
herself." The apostle knew what he was talking 
about when he said that riches brought with them 
" divers temptations " and difficulties. 

REUNION WITH LOVED ONES. 

In his poem "Prospice," Browning wrote his own 
hope and faith that he should meet again in everlast- 
ing reunion his dearly loved wife, whom he had " lost 
a while." The brave words ought to comfort every 
Christian heart thus bereaved : 

I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forebore, 

And bade me creep past. 
No ! Let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers 

The heroes of old, 
Bear the brant, in a minute pay glad life's arrears 

Of pain, darkness, and cold. 
For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave, 

The black minute's at end, 



MAKE RELIGION ATTRACTIVE. 13 



And the elements' rage, the fiend voices that rave, 

Shall dwindle, shall blend, 
Shall change, shall become first a piece out of pain, 

Then a light, then thy breast, 
O thou soul of my soul ! I shall clasp thee again, 

And with God be the rest ! 

MAKE RELIGION ATTRACTIVE* 

It is said that when General Wood was undertaking 
to establish good government at Santiago, one of his 
greatest difficulties was to get wealthy and well-edu- 
cated natives to take official positions. They sulked 
and hung back because they thought too many posi- 
tions had been given to Spaniards. In a small town 
near Santiago General Wood was anxious to secure a 
good Cuban mayor, but he was warned that every de- 
sirable man would decline it. One day the principal 
storekeeper of the town came to see General Wood 
about a small contract for fodder. He was a typical 
native of his class, fat, garrulous, and conceited, and 
it was evident that he was the chief gossip of his 
neighborhood. After concluding the business matter 
the general pretended to consult a letter. " By the 
way, senor,"he said, "you are an old resident of this 
country, and I would like you to give me a little ad- 
vice." "I am at your Excellency's service," said the 
little storekeeper, swelling with pride. "Is it true, 
then, as is stated to me," continued the general, "that 
the Cuban gentlemen are very poorly educated, and 
fear to accept civil offices lest they appear to disad- 
vantage compared with Spanish employees ? " " No, 



14 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



your Excellency ! " roared the Cuban indignantly, 
"that's all Spanish lies! Some scoundrel Spaniard 
writes you that just for to make you prejudiced ! " 
The little Cuban then poured out his wrath and pa- 
triotism for half an hour. "Ah, well," said Wood 
quietly, " I merely wanted your opinion, and am sure 
I am very much obliged. You'll consider this con- 
versation private, of course." "Certainly," said the 
storekeeper, and as the general anticipated he hurried 
home and told it to everybody in town. A few days 
later one of the leading Cuban citizens was appointed 
mayor, and at once accepted. He administered the 
office with great success. There is a suggestion in 
this, not only for preachers, but for all Christian 
workers who seek to attract others to the Christian 
life. Not only should we magnify that life by our 
own conduct, but we should seek to hold it up before 
the world in the most attractive and desirable way. 

AUTUMN PICTURES. 

To my mind no poet has sung so perfectly of 
autumn, and given us at once so beautiful, so sugges- 
tive, and so sublime a picture of the evening of the 
year, as Keats in his ode, " To Autumn " : 

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness ! 

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun ; 
Conspiring with him how to load and bless 

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run ; 
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees, 

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core ; 
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells 



A GREEDY SPIRIT. 



15 



With, a sweet kernel ; to set budding more 
And still more, later flowers for the bees, 
Until they think warm days will never cease, 
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells. 

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? 

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find 
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, 

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind ; 
Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep, 

Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook 
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers ; 
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep 
Steady thy laden head across a brook ; 
Or by a cider-press, with patient look, 
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours. 

Where are the songs of Spring? Aye, where are they? 

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, — 
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, 
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue ; 
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn 
Among the river sallows, borne aloft 

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies ; 
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn ; 
Hedge crickets sing ; and now with treble soft 
The redbreast whistles from a garden croft, 
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. 

A GREEDY SPIRIT, 

A novel petition was recently submitted to the 
French Chamber of Deputies by a woman resident in 
the Finistere Department. She proposes that steps 
be taken to test the quality of sow's milk as a form 
of nourishment for babes. Donkey's milk, as is well 



16 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



known, is superior to cow's for the purpose, but the 
employment of that of the domestic pig has the merit 
of novelty. Several doctors have already pronounced 
in favor of the innovation. It would be a sad thing 
to do this if there were any danger of children ab- 
sorbing in that way in any greater degree the hoggish 
spirit. No one can study human life without per- 
ceiving everywhere a dominant spirit of greed, which 
is illustrated by no animal so perfectly as by the hog. 
The spirit of Christ is at war with this spirit of greed. 
A man maybe sure that it is not Christ's spirit which 
is possessing him unless he is becoming less greedy 
and more brotherly. 

LAW AND FREEDOM. 

G-oethe, in his sonnet "Nature and Art," puts in 
a strong light the great fact that true freedom can 
only come through law, and that discipline and self- 
control are always necessary for the development and 
exercise of great power : 

Nature and art seem ofttimes to be foes, 
But, ere we know it, join in making peace ; 
My own repugnance, too, has come to cease, 
And each an equal power attractive shows. 

Let us but make an end to dull repose ; 
When art we serve in toil without release, 
Through stated hours, absolved from vain caprice, 
Nature once more within us freely glows. 

All culture, as I hold, must take this course : 
Unbridled spirits ever strive in vain 
Perfection's radiant summit to attain. 



NOURISHING SWEETS. 



17 



Who seeks great ends must straitly curb his force ; 
In narrow bound the master's skill shall show, 
And only law true freedom can bestow. 

THE ROCK OF AGES. 

The largest block of granite ever quarried in the 
world was lately blown from the quarry in Red 
Stone, 1ST. H. It is forty-five feet long, thirty-five 
feet wide, and twenty-eight feet thick. The blast 
took three hundred pounds of powder, and the concus- 
sion shook the entire village. The cleavage was abso- 
lutely perfect, and the great stone split like a block 
of wood. But there is a stone no blast of earth's 
powder can ever rend asunder. It is the Eock of 
Ages that David sings about when he says, "For in 
the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion ; 
in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me ; he 
shall set me up upon a rock." 

NOURISHING SWEETS. 

On a great sugar-plantation in Texas, where several 
hundred mules are employed, a new food for them 
has been introduced during the last few years. This 
food is pure, black molasses, and the animals are fed 
nothing else throughout the year. Large troughs 
have been built in the stables, into which the molasses 
is conducted by pipes direct from the refinery. The 
mules have a great fondness for the molasses, and 
are kept in prime condition all the time, tho the food 
is much cheaper than corn or oats. It is interesting 
to note that even mules thrive on sweets. Quick ob- 
2 



18 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



servers have long known that men and women will 
carry heavier loads and keep in better condition on 
kindness and sympathy than on any sort of nagging 
or criticism that was ever invented. If you want to 
get the best work out of any one, feed him well on 
love and good cheer. 

POSITIVE CHARACTER, 

Tennyson never wrote more truly than in that line- 
He makes no friend who never made a foe. 

The jellyfish nature, which fits in everywhere and has 
no opinions or principles with backbone to stand up 
and bear the cross or die on the cross, has not stamina 
enough to conceive what real friendship means. 

DUTY AND BLESSING. 

Longfellow recalls "The Legend Beautiful," with 
its story of the old monastery, the monk in an agony 
of prayer on its cold stone floor, the sudden vision of 
the Christ that came to him there, and how just in the 
midst of his joy at the heavenly sight the bell pealed 
forth its message calling him to feed the poor beggars 
at the convent-gate. If he did not go the poor would 
suffer; but to go meant to leave the vision he had 
been longing for all his life. Says the poet: 

Then a voice within his breast 

Whispered, audible and clear, 

As if to the outward ear : 
"Do thy duty ; that is best; 
Leave unto thy Lord the rest ! 19 



WORTH SAVING. 



19 



The monk heeded it as the message of God, and went 
away to his task of service ; and when he came back, 
to his great delight, his Lord was still there, and with 
smiling lips he said, 

Hadst thou stayed, I must have fled. 

Blessing always comes through duty, and the heav- 
enly vision can never be kept through self-indulgence. 

"WORTH SAVING. 

Not very long ago a mass of wet green paper, which 
was nearly pulp, was sent to the United States Treas- 
ury, with a statement properly verified that the gallon 
and a half of greasy, bad-looking, and worse-smelling 
stuff represented a large sum in the old compound- 
interest notes of 1864. The Treasury clerks dried 
the matter and then carefully separated it, and found 
that the owner's statement was correct. The money 
was part of the contents of a safe on board a Missis- 
sippi steamer that was burned a few years ago, and 
the safe had been at the bottom of the river nearly 
a year before the unconsumed remnant of the boat 
was raised. There is something like that in human 
life. Many a poor battered man is, like that safe, 
holding great value in divine qualities bearing the 
image of God, which are worth any sacrifice to re- 
deem and save. It is no matter how rusty and ugly 
the safe is, if there be only the priceless value within. 
Christian workers need to be on their guard lest, in 
the repulsive appearance of the safe, they forget the 
rich treasures it contains. 



J 



20 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



THE HOMING PIGEON. 

Thomas Moore seizes on the habits of the homing 
pigeon, which flies high and swift and straight as a 
die toward its home after it has once decided on its 
course, as an ideal for the Christian in his homeward 
flight toward the skies : 

The bird, let loose in Eastern skies, 

When hastening fondly home, 
Ne'er stoops to earth her wing, nor flies 

Where idle warblers roam, 
But high she shoots through air and light, 

Above all low delay, 
Where nothing earthly bounds her flight, 

Nor shadow dims her way. 

So grant me, God, from every care 

And stain of passion free, 
Aloft, through Virtue's purer air, 

To hold my course to thee ! 
No sin to cloud, no lure to stay 

My soul, as home she springs ; 
Thy sunshine on her joyful way, 

Thy freedom in her wings ! 

SPIRITUAL ATMOSPHERE. 

Very clearly these lines of Emerson tell the im- 
portance of atmosphere and surroundings. As he 
says, "Nothing is fair or good alone." The same 
deed done by different people under different circum- 
stances may seem the deed of a saint in the one case 
and the act of a scoundrel in the other. The charm 
of a good act is that it is the natural output of an hon- 



DEFENDERS OF A BAD CAUSE. 21 



est heart at the right time and place. A deed that is 
glorious with the charm of loving purpose prompting 
and surrounding it may be very unattractive under 
other circumstances. Emerson's song pictures it all 
more perfectly than any prose : 

I thought the sparrow 's note from heaven, 

Singing at dawn on the alder bough ; 

I brought him home, in his nest, at even ; 

He sings the song, but it cheers not now, 

For I did not bring home the river and sky ; — 

He sang to my ear, — they sang to my eye. 

The delicate shells lay on the shore ; 

The bubbles of the latest wave 

Fresh pearls to their enamel gave, 

And the bellowing of the savage sea 

Greeted their safe escape to me. 

I wiped away the weeds and foam, 

I fetched my sea-born treasures home ; 

But the poor, unsightly, noisome things 

Had left their beauty on the shore 

With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar. 

THE MEDLEY OF DEFENDERS OF A BAD 
CAUSE, 

It is very interesting and suggestive to note what a 
diverse group of people will sometimes be gathered in 
defense of a bad cause. Shakespeare makes one of 
his characters say, " Misery doth acquaint a man with 
strange bedfellows," and politics in defense of a bad 
cause may at times illustrate the same fact. A gen- 
tleman in Southern California went out to look for 
some of his stock that were in danger because of 
widespread forest fires. When he came upon them 



22 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



he was astonished to find not only his cattle and 
horses, but a deer, three wildcats, a coyote, and sev- 
eral rabbits, all alive, and apparently in no fear of 
him. They watched his approach with indifference, 
the timidity gone from the big-eyed deer, fear taking 
the place of venom in the wildcat's purr, and a pro- 
fessed honesty shining in the gray coyote's face. The 
rabbits sat on their haunches, as meek as the pets of 
children. The rancher drove the stock through the 
smoldering brush, the deer going along with the cat- 
tle, the rabbits hopping along at the rancher's heels, 
and the coyote and the wildcats keeping pace with 
the rest. But when the burning field was passed and 
the danger of immediate destruction no longer threat- 
ened, the deer broke into a run for the distant hills, 
the rabbits were away like a flash, and the old defi- 
ance and snarling leer came back to the wildcats, 
while the coyote plainly showed that he was the same 
old cowardly, slouching thief as of yore. How often 
we see that illustrated when, to save the domination 
of some corrupt and wicked political machine in a 
city, saloon-keepers, and gamblers, and prize-fighters, 
and thugs, and deacons, and elders, and even an oc- 
casional preacher, will flock together rather than see 
the corrupt machine go to pieces. 



FIDELITY IN NEED. 

A ship recently arrived at San Francisco which had 
been two hundred and ninety-six days from New Cas- 
tle, Australia. She had been in great peril in a storm 



HEAVEN'S WORK. 



23 



at sea and had had long delays. One night when she 
was in great danger the captain asked the captain of 
another ship to stand by through the night, and he 
did so at great risk to his own vessel and life, but 
finally was the cause of salvation of the imperiled ves- 
sel. As soon as he was safe in harbor the captain of 
the ship that had been threatened with wreck gave his 
first attention to showing appreciation of the other 
captain's assistance, and sent him a gold watch, and 
went before the council of the city of Sydney and told 
the story of his heroism. On learning of it the Syd- 
ney authorities presented to the noble captain a medal 
bearing his name on one side, and on the other the 
simple inscription, "The man that did stand by." In 
the midst of the campaign for righteousness that is 
going on in our modern life, the noblest ambition for 
a Christian man is to share the fate of righteousness ; 
to be no more popular than Jesus Christ would be, if 
he stood in His place, and sought as of old to make it 
easy for men to do right and hard for them to do 
wrong. Eather than anything else the Christian man 
should prize having Christ look down upon him and 
say : " The man that did stand by. " 

HEAVEN'S WORK. 

Surely none of us can believe that heaven will be 
idleness, and all earnest human hearts must thrill 
with appreciation of Helen Hunt Jackson's poem, 
"Habeas Corpus," addressed to Death: 

I grudge thee this right hand of mine ; 
I grudge thee this quick-beating heart; 



24 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



They never gave me coward sign, 
Nor played me once a traitor's part. 

O feeble, mighty human hand ! 

fragile, dauntless human heart ! 
The universe holds nothing planned 

With such sublime, transcendent art. 

Ah, well, friend Death, good friend thou art : 

1 shall be free when thou art through. 
Take all there is — take hand and heart : 

There must be somewhere work to do. 

THE USELESSNESS OF SPITE. 

One of the curious things that appear every year in 
the columns of the London Times is this death notice : 
" On Friday, July 16, 1839, in her thirty-third year, 
the very deeply lamented Lady Flora Hastings, M. 
J. V." The Lady Flora in question was one of the 
most beautiful and charming of the maids of honor to 
the Queen, and had been in attendance on her Majesty 
for some time, when she suddenly found herself the 
subject of malevolent gossip which had its origin 
among the ladies-in-waiting of the Queen, prominent 
among the number being Lady Portman. The Queen, 
who was unmarried at the time, sided with her ladies 
against the unfortunate girl. Inquiry fully vindicated 
Lady Flora, and she was reinstated in the Queen's 
favor. But when she demanded that her traducers be 
excluded from the court, the Queen refused to com- 
ply. Soon afterward Lady Flora became ill and died ? 
and her relatives have never forgiven her Majesty for 
refusing her request. It was a sister of Lady Flora 



MEMORY'S SUNKEN CITY. 



25 



who was the mother of the late Marquis of Bute, 
and inasmuch as he was brought up to the belief that 
his lovely aunt was ill-treatecl by her Majesty, he has 
always manifested a very marked degree of reserve 
toward the court, and it is generally believed that it 
is by his orders that the obituary notice concerning 
Lady Flora's death appears each year in the London 
Times. How useless have been all these years of 
spiteful advertising. And yet it is a striking illustra- 
tion of the uselessness of spite -work always. 

MEMORY'S SUNKEN CITY. 

Wilhelm Miiller tells the popular legend of the 
sunken city of Yineta, and how the fishermen some- 
times imagine they catch glimpses of its glory, and 
hear faintly the ringing of its bells, and applies it to 
that past which is sacred in every one of us, and 
which memory so often brings back to us : 

From the sea's deep, deep recesses cometh 
Faintest sound of distant evening bells, 

Bringing to our ears its wondrous tidings ; 
Of a city far submerged it tells. 

Sunk beneath the ocean's heaving surface, 

Stand for evermore its ruins old ; 
From its roofs and towers, deeply hidden, 

Shine again reflected rays of gold. 

And the seaman who at ruddy evening 

Once hath felt its weird reflection's charm, 

Saileth ever toward the self-same visiou, 
Tho steep cliffs be near to do him harm. 



26 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



From my heart's deep, deep recesses cometh 
Faintest sound, like distant evening bells. 

Ah, it bringeth to me wondrous tidings ; 
Of the love once loved again it tells. 

For a world of beauty there lies hidden, 

There forever stands its ruins old ; 
Only in my dreams, that come at midnight, 

Shine again its heavenly rays of gold. 

Then I fain would plunge beneath the surface, 
And would sink in its reflected gold ; 

And, at times, methinks an angel message 
Calls me back into that city old. 

MALICE AND FOLLY, 

Peacocks and tigers are believed usually to live to- 
gether. There is also a common jungle legend that 
leopards and tigers fascinate peacocks. It may have 
originated in the fact that both leopards and peacocks 
have spots, and that there is some mysterious relation 
between them. An African hunter relates that he 
was stalking a peacock on one occasion, when he was 
surprised to see how near it allowed him to approach. 
The bird paid no attention to him, but was gazing in- 
tently, as if fascinated, at a little patch of jungle just 
in front. Looking in the same direction, he saw a 
leopard stealthily crawling toward the bird, which 
continued to remain still in the same position. He 
was greatly surprised, for he had never even heard of 
leopards in that neighborhood, but his astonishment 
was greater when, on his raising his gun, one barrel 
of which was loaded with ball, and covering the ani- 



THE CALL OF GOD. 



27 



mal, the leopard threw up his paws, and shrieked in a 
voice hoarse with terror: "No, sir, no, don't tire!" 
He said that for a moment he thought he must be go- 
ing mad, and all the Indian tales of enchanted princes 
and fairies, werwolves and the like, flashed through 
his recollection. The next moment he saw a man very 
cleverly disguised in a leopard's skin, with a well- 
stuffed head, and a bow and arrow in one paw ? stand- 
ing before him. The man so dressed was a profes- 
sional fowler, who said that in that disguise he could 
always approach near enough to shoot peacocks with a 
bow and arrow, and sometimes to catch them in his 
hand. Malice and folly often breed in the same jun- 
gle. The one is never very far away from the other. 
The love of display and the love of greed are usually 
found near each other. Often the one preys on the 
other. 

THE CALL OF GOD. 

It is a great hour in any man's life when he hears 
the call of God and responds to it, and henceforth 
feels that he is set apart by heavenly hands to do the 
work which belongs to him. William Wordsworth, 
writing of his own call to his career, outlines what 
many another man has felt but could not so well de- 
scribe : 

My heart was full ; I made no vows, but vows 

Were made for me ; bond unknown to me 

Was given, that I should he else sinning greatly, 

A dedicated spirit. On I walked 

In thankful blessedness which yet survives. 



28 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSET. 

In London just at present the faddists and curio- 
collectors are vying with one another for the posses- 
sion of the skeletons of dervishes that have been 
brought back from the bloody plains before Omdur- 
man. Some two hundred dervish skeletons are on 
the London market, and experts in bones declare that 
their superiority over the average skeletons of com- 
merce will cause no little stir in anatomical circles. 
One of the principal dealers in London states that 
these fine athletic dervishes make the best skeletons 
ever put on the bone market. This seems like a 
weird and forbidding subject, and yet the sad fact re- 
mains that there are skeletons kept, not in the curio 
hall or for display in the library, but in the social 
closets of many a prosperous-looking home. Sin and 
dissipation take many a beautiful form, and transform 
it into the family skeleton, a pitiful thing to be 
ashamed of. 

FREEDOM AND RIGHT. 

No man is free who does not do what he feels he 
ought to do. After a man knows what is right there 
is only one way to keep his freedom, and that is to - 
follow that divine index-finger wherever it leads. 
How well Emerson puts it : 

Freedom's secret wilt thou know? 
Counsel not with flesh and blood ; 
Loiter not for cloak or food ; 
Right thou feelest, rush to do. 



GLOWING SOULS. 



29 



MICE AND MUSIC. 

People living in flats in Harlem, New York City, 
are complaining of mice in their pianos. The mice 
apparently learn to keep quite still when the piano is 
being played, but scamper about at other times. Oc- 
casionally when the player has stopped for a few 
moments the mouse begins to race up and down the 
strings. It is well known to piano-tuners that mice, 
if they have not really an ear for music, often have a 
decided liking for the vibration of the piano while it is 
being played on. It may be by accident that a mouse 
strays into a piano first ; but after it gets the better of 
its fear, when the piano is played it will return again. 
But all the music does not rob them of their sharp 
teeth or of their mischievous habit of cutting valuable 
articles. Musical culture, or, indeed, intellectual cul- 
ture of any kind, has never been able to eradicate the 
mischievous and evil instinct from either mice or 
men. The heart must be transformed, and then cul- 
ture may do a great deal to beautify and polish. 

GLOWING SOULS. 

There is near Pottstown, Pa., a large surface de- 
posit of dark stones, covering several acres, called 
"ringing rocks." They have a metallic sound when 
struck with a hammer, which gives them their name. 
During a recent thunder-storm on a dark night persons 
passing the rocks were startled to see a light bluish 
flame rise from the ground and spread over a space 



30, 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



ten or twelve yards square. This flame rose and fell 
after the manner of the Northern lights, lighting up 
the darkness around it. Some old residents in that 
neighborhood say that these strange lights are always 
seen on stormy nights. They explain that the rocks 
are so metallic in formation that they attract all the 
electricity in the atmosphere for miles around, and 
through some natural cause the electricity becomes 
luminous like a phosphorescent glow. Scientific men 
declare that the rocks are so highly charged with mag- 
netism that any electric disturbance will cause the 
glow. It is possible for men and women to be so 
highly charged with the magnetism of the Holy Spirit 
that they will glow with a divine light, and will illu- 
minate the spiritual darkness of the world about them. 
It is possible for every one of us to live a luminous 
life like that. 

THE RESTFULNESS OF THE SEA, 

John Keats, in his sonnet on the sea, describes 
what many a weary man or woman has felt to the 
depths of the soul : 

O ye who have your eyeballs vexed and tired, 

Feast them upon the wildness of the sea ; 

O ye whose ears are dimmed with uproar rude, 

Or fed too much with cloying melody, 

Sit ye near some old cavern's mouth and brood 

Until ye start as if the sea-nymphs quired. 

SELF-SURRENDER. 

Christina Eossetti, in her poem "Weary in Well- 
doing," paints a picture of the weary path through 



STALE FOOD. 



31 



which she came to surrender herself to God's will, 
and thus points out the way over which many have 
traveled, and emphasizes with graphic force the great 
truth that only in complete submission to the will of 
God is there perfect peace. Our poet sings : 

I would have gone : God bade me stay ; 

I would have worked : God bade me rest. 
He broke my will from day to day, 

He read my yearnings unexpressed, 
And said them nay. 

Now I would stay : God bids me go ; 

Now I would rest : God bids me work. 
He breaks my heart tossed to and fro, 

My soul is wrung with doubts that lurk 
And vex me so. 

I go, Lord, where thou sendest me ; 

Day after day I plod and moil : 
But, Christ my God, when will it be 

That I may let alone my toil, 
And rest with thee? 



STALE FOOD. 

There is a loaf of bread four thousand five hundred 
years old which was found in the tomb of Mentuhotep, 
who died in Egypt 2500 B.C. It is now in the Mu- 
seum of Berlin. This loaf of bread is dark brown in 
color. Inside are many large holes. Probably this 
part of the bread long since fell into dust ; but much 
of the bread still remains in the shape of whole ker- 
nels and pieces of grain. Examination proves that 
the bread was made of barley, and the grains were 



32 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



only rudely crushed and not sifted. It was not baked 
in ovens, but after being kneaded into dough by the 
addition of water was placed between two heated 
stones, or was put on a plate and laid upon the red- 
hot coals. This is perhaps the stalest loaf of bread 
in the world, but there are people feeding themselves 
every day in a spiritual way on bread as useless as 
that. And it is entirely unnecessary that we should 
do this, for Christ is the living bread that came down 
from heaven, and we may be fed daily on his fresh 
thought and love for us. 

VALUE OF STRONG MEN. 

Tennyson, in his "Ode to Wellington," suggests the 
immense value to the great masses of mankind which 
comes from the strong characters who often stand to 
the weak as interpreters of God : 

For tho the giant ages heave the hill 

And break the shore, and evermore 

Make and break, and work their will; 

Tho world on world in myriad myriads roll 

Bound us, each with different powers, 

And other forms of life than ours, 

What know we greater than the soul? 

On God and Godlike men we build our trust. 

MAN-EATERS. 

As is generally known, a man-eating tiger is usually 
an old beast which has passed his time for catching 
game, and so seeks an easier game in human beings. 
But tigers born of a man-eating tigress are always 



HUMILITY. 



33 



man-eaters, for they get their first lessons in hunting 
from their mother. A tigress teaches her whelps to 
hunt as a cat does her kittens, by bringing them live 
prey to practise upon. Some years ago, in one of the 
hill districts of India, a tigress was killed whose taking 
off caused much rejoicing among the natives. She 
was known all over India as the man-eater who once 
had given her whelps a live man to play with. She 
carried off the man from an open hut in the forest, 
where some wood-cutters were sleeping. His com- 
panions took refuge in trees, and from their place of 
safety saw her take the man alive to where the whelps 
were waiting close by and lay him down before them. 
As the man attempted to crawl away the whelps would 
cling to his legs with teeth and claws, the tigress look- 
ing on and purring with pleasure. Gossipers and scan- 
dal-mongers are usually developed in the same way. 
When people cease to have business of their own that 
takes up their thought and attention, they begin to 
prey on other people. It is also true that the chil- 
dren of a scandal-loving mother are almost certain 
to develop the same man-eating trait. A bloodthirsty 
tigress teaching her whelps to play with a live man 
and thus teaching them how to kill is not an exagger- 
ated illustration of the viciousness c? a family brought 
up to gossip and evil-speaking of their neighbors. 



HUMILITY. 

Humility is the only proper attitude for the human 
soul. Let any man who feels sure he has reason to 
3 



34 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



be proud and can never feel differently listen to the 
touching prayer which Helen Hunt Jackson wrote 
when, only four days before her death, she poured out 
her soul's pent-up fountain in this "Last Prayer " : 

Father, I scarcely dare to pray, 

So clear I see, now it is done, 
That I have wasted half my day, 

Arid left my work but just begun ; 
So clear I see that things I thought 

Were right or harmless, were a sin ; 
So clear I see that I have sought 

Unconscious, selfish aims to win ; 
So clear I see that I have hurt 

The souls I might have helped to save ; 
That I have slothful been, inert, 

Deaf to the call thy leaders gave. 
In outskirts of thy kingdom vast, 

Father, the lowliest spot give me ; 
Set me the lowliest task thou hast ; 

Let me, repentant, work for thee ! 

THE TESTIMONY OF THE LIFE. 

Adelina Patti, the great singer, on her recent mar- 
riage to Baron de Cederstrom, left orders at her home 
that her mail should all be forwarded to the Cannes 
post-office. On her arrival she went to the post-office 
and asked if there were any letters for the Baroness 
Adelina de Cederstrom-Patti. "Lots of them." 
"Then give them tome.' 7 "Have you any old let- 
ters by which I can identify you? " "No, I have 
nothing but my visiting-card. Here it is." "Oh, 
that' s not enough, madam ; any one can get visiting- 



RESTFULNESS OF GREAT BOOKS. 35 



cards of other people. If you want your mail, you 
will have to give me a better proof of your identity 
than that." A brilliant idea then struck Mme. Patti. 
She began to sing. A touching song she chose, the 
one beginning " A voice loving and tender " — and 
never did she put more heart into the melody. And 
marvelous was the change as the brilliant music broke 
through the intense silence. In a few minutes the 
quiet post-office was filled with people, and hardly 
had the singer concluded the first few lines of the 
ballad when an old clerk came forward and said, trem- 
bling with excitement: "It's Patti, Patti! There's 
none but Adelina Patti who would sing like that." 
"Well, are you satisfied now?" asked the singer of 
the official who had doubted her identity. The only 
reply which he made was to go to the drawer and 
hand her the pile of letters. If we are to convince 
the world of the divinity of Jesus Christ and his power 
to transform poor sinful human hearts and lives into 
his own likeness, then we must prove it by the living 
testimony of our lives. We must learn to sing the 
heavenly music. 

THE RESTFULNESS OF GREAT BOOKS. 

Longfellow, in his comparison of the " Divine Com- 
edy" to a vast cathedral, sets forth with graphic 
beauty the power of a great poem or a great work of 
the imagination to rest the soul of the reader, and to 
have upon him a worshipful influence. He declares 
that as the laborer comes in out of the dust and heat 



36 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



to say his prayers and goes away with soul refreshed, 
so Dante's great book serves for him. 

So, as I enter here from day to day, 

And leave my burden at this minster gate, 

Kneeling in prayer, and not ashamed to pray, 
The tumult of the time disconsolate 

To inarticulate murmurs dies away, 

While the eternal ages watch and wait. 

TAKE TIME TO FLY. 

On the coast of New Guinea there is a bird known 
as maleo which deposits its eggs in a most unbirdlike 
manner, reminding one of the sea-turtles. During 
the laying season, instead of seeking some leafy bower 
and there building its nest, it descends to the sea- 
shore, and in the hot volcanic sand digs a hole three 
or four feet across and two or more feet deep, in which 
the enormous eggs are deposited. When the full 
complement is laid, the bird covers them up with 
sand and deserts them, leaving them to the sun, as 
in the case of turtles, to complete the work of hatch- 
ing. When this occurs, the young birds dig their way 
out through the two or three feet of earth and run in 
the bush, fully able to care for themselves. A trader 
who had purchased from the natives a number of the 
eggs of this bird, placed them in the cabin of his trad- 
ing-vessel. It was hot in there, and the birds were 
hatched out and literally flew from the broken shells 
fully equipped for their struggle with the world. The 
trouble is, the birds are of no special value after they 
do fly. It takes an eagle a long time to develop the 



POWER OF A GREAT PURPOSE. 



37 



strength, of wing that gives it the power to soar in the 
face of the sun. A mushrooom growth is never desir- 
able. Youth should take time to fly. Christians 
should take time for Bible-reading, and prayer, and 
meditation, and communion with God. It is those 
that wait upon the Lord who renew their strength and 
"mount up with wings as eagles." 

CHRISTIAN OLD AGE. 

Emerson sets forth the beauty and glory of the old 
age of the Christian, who does not drift on the sea of 
life, but who has made a voyage with a definite pur- 
pose, and draws near the harbor at last with a heart 
full of courage and gladness : 

As the bird trims her to the gale, 

I trim myself to the storm of time ; 
I man the rudder, reef the sail, 

Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime : 
"Lowly, faithful, banish fear, 

Right onward drive unharmed ; 
The port, well worth the cruise, is near, 

And every wave is charmed." 

THE FREEING POWER OF A GREAT PURPOSE. 

General Wolseley, in a published account of his 
march with a detachment to the relief of General 
Havelock in the Indian mutiny, tells how, during a 
night march, a tiger sprang into the midst of his col- 
umn upon a bullock attached to an ammunition- wagon 
and attempted to carry it away. The outcry and 



38 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



flashing of torches drove the tiger from the bullock, 
yet he did not quit the field, but remained standing 
under a tree in full view, glaring at the procession 
until it had marched by. As every cartridge and 
every minute was precious, and might mean the fate 
of their fellow soldiers, the order was given that no 
shot be fired at the tiger. So it is that one emotion 
will swallow up another. There is in this a clear 
illustration of much of the philosophy of life. If you 
have no great purpose toward which you are pressing, 
you are at the mercy of every tiger-like annoyance 
that may leap out of ambush. But if you are one of 
God's soldiers, marching forth under his leadership 
to help conquer the world for Christ, you are freed 
from many of the petty fears that torment narrow 
souls. 

TRANSITORINESS OF EARTHLY THINGS. 

Thomas Moore's oft-quoted poem, "This World Is 
All a Fleeting Show," aptly describes the transient 
character of all worldly pleasures : 

This world is all a fleeting show, 

For man's illusion given ; 
The smiles of joy, the tears of wo, 
Deceitful shine, deceitful flow — 

There's nothing true but Heaven ! 

And false the light on glory's plume, 

As fading hues of even ; 
And love and hope, and beauty's bloom, 
Are blossoms gathered for the tomb — 

There's nothing bright but Heaven ! 



THE HONEY OF LIFE. 39 

Poor wanderers of a stormy day, 

From wave to wave we're driven, 
And fancy's flash and reason's ray 
Serve bnt to light the troubled way — 

There's nothing calm but Heaven ! 

THE DEEPER VOICE, 

What a splendid cable from earth to heaven is a 
faith like that of which Tennyson speaks : 

And all is well, tho faith and form 

Be sundered in the night of fear ; 

Well roars the storm to those that hear 
A deeper voice across the storm. 

THE HONEY OF LIFE. 

Many new experiments are being tried in honey- 
making. The scientific producer of honey does not 
allow his bees to pursue their own wanderings and sip 
of the nectar of flowers where they please. Honey 
made in this promiscuous way is never of the best. 
The bees' actions are now restricted and guided. As 
a result, no honey was ever so delicious as that which 
is now being produced. A garden full of white sweet 
clover from which every weed or strange flower is 
carefully purged is enclosed and roofed with a fine 
wire netting, and the beehives are then placed within 
the enclosure, and the result is a honey very delicate 
and almost white in color. What great improvement 
there would be in the honey of conversation and con- 
duct among Christian people if they were as careful 



40 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



as this in selecting the sources from which to draw 
the nourishment of heart and spirit ! If a bee can not 
get pure white honey from the wild vicious plants 
that grow in the pastures, why should we expect to 
get the pure honey of life from promiscuous fellow- 
ships and communion with worldliness? 

LOVE AND JUSTICE* 

No one has more clearly shown the difference be- 
tween love and justice, and the superiority of love 
over justice, than Wilhelm Mtiller in his splendid epi- 
gram: 

Justice to each one says, " Have what is thine ! " 
But Love to each one says, "Have what is mine ! " 

TATTOOED ROYALTY, 

Tattooing is just now the popular pastime of the 
leisured world. One of the best-known men in high 
European circles, the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, is 
most elaborately tattooed. Prince and Princess Wal- 
demar of Denmark, Queen Olga of Greece, King Oscar 
of Sweden, the Duke of York, the Grand Duke Con- 
stantine, and many others of royal and distinguished 
rank are said to have submitted themselves to the tat- 
tooing process. This seems rather small business for 
royalty, and a degradation of the beauty of the human 
form. But there is a tattooing process far more seri- 
ous than that. It is the tattooing of the character. 
While it seems strange enough that a great distin- 



BETTER TO US THAN WE DESERVE. 41 



guished man should take a pleasure in having a ser- 
pent tattooed into the skin of his arm or breast, it is 
far stranger that a man born to be the son of God and 
capable of living a pure and noble life should tattoo 
himself in his thoughts and imaginations and in his 
very soul with the serpent of evil, so that everywhere 
he bears the brand of his Satanic master. 

BETTER TO US THAN "WE DESERVE. 

A miner in Australia had reached the very last of 
his resources without finding a speck of gold. There 
was nothing for it, therefore, but to turn back on the 
morrow, while a mouthful of food was left, and to 
retrace his steps as best he might to the nearest port. 
The last day's fruitless work left him too weak and 
exhausted to carry his heavy tools back to camp. So 
he just flung them down and staggered over the two 
or three miles of desert, guided by the smoke of the 
camp-fire. Next morning early, after a great deal of 
sleep and very little food, he braced himself up to go 
back and fetch his tools. He would not have gone 
for them, but he thought they might bring the price 
of a meal or two when it came to the last. The way 
seemed twice as long as usual, for his heart was too 
heavy to carry. At last he saw his barrow and pick 
standing up on the flat plain a little way off . He was 
wearily dragging on toward them, when he caught his 
toe against a stone deeply embedded in the sand and 
fell down. That seemed to be the straw which broke 
the camel's back — to think that, after all his hard 



42 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



luck, he should nearly break his toe against the only 
stone in the district. He lay there like Job's friend, 
and cursed God and wanted to die. After a bit he 
felt like a passionate child, and thought he must beat 
that stone before he could feel quiet. But it was too 
firm in the sand for his hands to get it up ; so in his 
rage he went and got his pick to dig out that stone so 
that he might smash it. He dug it up, and it was 
solid gold. He carried it safely to the seacoast, and 
it brought him $8,000. Telling a sympathetic 
woman about it, without sparing himself, or hiding 
his curses at his ill luck, he then showed her the great 
nugget of gold and asked: "Now, ma'am, I ask you, 
did I deserve this? " How many of us might well 
hold our great nuggets of blessing up before God and 
cry out : "Did I deserve this? " 

A SISTER'S LOVE. 

Christina Eossetti has sung a beautiful note of the 
sweet and gentle passion which often binds two sisters 
together : 

For there is no friend like a sister, 
In calm or stormy weather, 
To cheer one on the tedious way, 
To fetch one if one goes astray, 
To lift one if one totters down, 
To strengthen whilst one stands. 

THE WORLD MOVES. 

A decided curiosity in legislation has been enacted 
in Massachusetts which confirms the old adage that it 



AT LIFE'S WHEEL. 



43 



is never too late to right a wrong. More than two 
hundred and sixty years ago Roger Williams, then 
settled in Salem, was ordered by the general court to 
depart from the jurisdiction of Massachusetts within 
six weeks. Subsequently permission was given him 
to remain in Salem till the following spring, on con- 
ditions he was unable to keep. When about to be ar- 
rested for persevering in his free speech, he was en- 
abled to escape three days before the officers of the 
court reached his lodging-place. What he subse- 
quently accomplished for religion, education, and 
humanity is known of all men. Now, in the year 
1899, the decree of banishment, or the record of the 
original order of the court, is brought from its pigeon- 
hole, and, by an ordinary motion seconded and 
adopted, is annuled, repealed, and made of no effect 
whatever. How Roger Williams must smile up in 
heaven, if he knows about it ! He has been free a 
long time ; but it is always well for a State or for a 
man frankly to confess wrongdoing, and Massachu- 
setts is to be congratulated. Every man that has 
taken a wrong step should follow the illustrious ex- 
ample , 

AT LIFE'S WHEEL. 

Helen Hunt Jackson has sung of the deep things of 
life in her poem of " Spinning " : 

Like a blind spinner in the sun, 

I tread my days ; 
I know that all my threads will run 

Appointed ways ; 



44 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



I know each day will bring its task, 
And being blind, no more I ask. 

I do not know the use or name 

Of that I spin ; 
I only know that some one came, 

And laid within 
My hand the thread, and said, " Since you 
Are blind, but one thing you can do." 

Sometimes the threads so rough and fast 

And tangled fly 
I know wild storms are sweeping past, 

And fear that I 
Shall fall ; but dare not try to find 
A safer place, since I am blind. 

I know not why, but I am sure 

That tint and place, 
In some great fabric to endure 

Past time and race, 
My threads will have ; so from the first, 
Tho blind, I never felt accurst. 

I think, perhaps, this trust has sprung 

From one short word 
Said over me when I was young, — 

So young, I heard 
It, knowing not that God's name signed 
My brow, and sealed me his, tho blind. 

But whether this be sealed or sign 

Within, without, 
It matters not. The bond divine 

I never doubt. 
I know he set me here, and still 
And glad and blind, I wait his will ; 

But listen, listen, day by day, 
To hear their tread 



HOLLOW AT THE HEART. 



45 



Who bear the finished web away, 

And cut the thread, 
And bring God's message in the sun, 
"Thou poor blind spinner, work is done." 

HOLLOW AT THE HEART. 

In Baltimore one Sunday morning, as the people 
were going to church, a telegraph-pole, large and 
strong and round, looking as stalwart as any other in 
the line, suddenly did a strange thing. It never 
would have been heard of except for that queer hap- 
pening. Without any warning, like a great, strong 
man struck down by an unseen bullet, the pole 
groaned, and then, with a snapping, tearing, grind- 
ing sound, the upper portion fell to the street, leav- 
ing about twenty-five feet standing. The people 
looked on and wondered. A crowd soon gathered, 
marveling at what should have caused such a catas- 
trophe. There was no hurricane, not even a brisk 
breeze, and surely not enough to sever such a pole as 
that, which had weathered so many storms. Just 
then a small boy began to climb the stump that was 
left, to investigate. When he reached the top, he 
found that right where the pole had broken was a 
scooped-out place where a pair of woodpeckers had cut 
out their nest, and there in the nest was a poor little 
woodpecker frightened half to death. Unnoticed, but 
steadily, stroke after stroke, the birds had dug their 
way back into the heart of the great, strong telegraph- 
pole, until they had sapped its strength. Sometimes a 
man comes crashing down in the city. His outer life 



46 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



has seemed strong and round and respectable. People 
have believed in him and trusted him, but he suddenly 
comes down in his ruin. The whole world marvels 
at it ; but after a little it is discovered that some secret 
sin had eaten into his heart, and the strength of the 
man's life was gone, tho he looked to the world as 
strong as ever. Look out for the secret sin ! 

THE VALUE OF A SOUL, 

No man can tell how great a deed he has wrought 
when he has saved a soul, a human immortal soul, 
from going down into darkness, and helped it upward 
to its wings and on its flight toward heaven. Keats 
suggests this value that is beyond human measure in 
those beautiful lines in which he declares that 

Man is more than half of nature's treasure, 
Of that fair beauty which no eye can see, 
Of that sweet music which no ear can measure. 

LOVE OR LEGALITY. 

A certain old merchant told me a very interesting 
story about his son. He has only one boy, and when 
he became of age the father called him into his count- 
ing-room and said : " Now, Fritz, you are twenty-one, 
and I have made up my mind to take you into the 
firm with me." Fritz seemed very much pleased at 
this announcement. "Yes," said the father, "I have 
determined that I will give you outright one-third in- 
terest in my entire business." At this further an- 



THE PERMANENCE OF THE UNSEEN. 47 

nouncement Fritz beamed with. joy. "But,' 7 said the 
father, "if I am to take you into partnership, we 
must, of course, have a regular business arrangement, 
just the same as if we were not related. I have drawn 
up a little contract here, in which I have set the limit 
of the amount that each one will be permitted to draw 
from the business. You will notice that I have placed 
your limit at two hundred dollars a month." At this 
announcement the countenance of young Fritz fell. 
He thought it over for a few minutes, and then he 
said : " Father, I think I would rather be your son 
than your partner. You have never denied me any- 
thing in my life that I have asked for. If I wanted 
a hundred or a thousand dollars, you have never re- 
fused me. Let things go on just as they are. You 
shall own it all, and I will be your son." The old 
man chuckled a good deal over the shrewdness of the 
lad. The Christian's relation to God is like that. 
Our morality is not a mere legal thing, but we are his 
sons ; and when we give up our hearts to him in lov- 
ing sonship, giving him our service for love's sweet 
sake, he will give us a blank check that will more 
than cover all our needs. 

THE PERMANENCE OF THE UNSEEN. 

Wordsworth, with great clearness, sets forth in the 
following lines the truth of Paul's statement that it 
is the unseen and spiritual verities which endure : 

Possessions vanish and opinions change 
And passions hold a fluctuating seat ; 



48 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



But by the storms of circumstance unshaken 

And subject neither to eclipse nor wane, 

Duty exists ; immutably survive 

For our support the measures and the forms 

That abstract intelligence supplies 

Whose kingdom is where time and space are not. 

BRUTALITY THE SAME IN RICH AND POOR. 

A writer in The Criterion recently attended a prize- 
fight in New York City to study the class of people to 
be seen there, and was astonished to find that he knew 
nearly everybody in the front rows in other associa- 
tions that made it strange to see them there. He saw 
in that crowd faces of men prominent in nearly all 
professions and walks of life — a politician who has 
sat in three cabinets and whose name is known the 
world over, his face discreetly hidden under the collar 
of his long coat and the brim of his hat ; Tammany 
politicians of smaller size were. there in great num- 
bers, from those drawing big salaries out of the pub- 
lic purse down to the Bowery saloon-keeper, or the 
police sergeant who found it hard to spare the twenty- 
five dollars from the housekeeping expenses for the 
purpose of attending the fight. But he must keep lit- 
erally and figuratively in touch with the police com- 
missioner sitting not far away, with a murderer who 
escaped from the gallows on a technicality on one 
side of him, and the keeper of an all-night restaurant 
on the other, or give up the rising hope of a captaincy. 
A star surgeon just fresh from an operation; the law- 
yer fighting his way through a great criminal trial ; 



GOD 'S SMILING FACE IN NATURE. 49 



the editor of a great newspaper ; a leading financier ; 
prize-fighters who have long passed the championship ; 
jockeys, trainers, actors out of an engagement — every 
kind of man representative of the fever of the market 
by day and the underground wickedness of a great 
city by night, was represented there — all imbued with 
one common lust. And on each face he observed the 
same expression, curiously repeated, of a blind, tense 
hunger, such as may be seen sometimes in a menagerie 
when the wild beasts are to be fed. It is not the 
length of a man's pocketbook, nor the kind of house 
he lives in, nor the grammatical expression which he 
gives to his tongue, that tells the kind of man he is. 
It is the mastery over mind and heart. If a man has 
given his inner nature over to appetite and lust and 
passion, then he is a brutal man, whether he live in a 
palace or a hovel; whether he sit in the mayor's chair 
or rule over the prize-ring. Out of the heart come 
the issues of life, and if a man is to be saved, the 
heart must be captured for Christ. 

GOD'S SMILING FACE IN NATURE. 

No poet was more sensitive to the presence of God 
in the changing scenes of nature than Whittier. The 
spirit of worship is in these lines of his poem on " The 
Lakeside " : 

Thanks, our Father ! that, like him, 

Thy tender love I see, 
In radiant hill and woodland dim, 

And tinted sunset sea. 

4 



50 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



For not in mockery dost thou fill 
Our earth with light and grace ; 

Thou hid' st no dark and cruel will 
Behind thy smiling face ! 

A PROUD BEGGAR. 

An amusing story conies from Spain, which will in- 
terest many who are trying to solve the problem of 
dealing with people who have so lost their self-respect 
that they have become mere human leeches. It is re- 
lated that in Madrid a beggar had for a long time oc- 
cupied a certain step at the entrance of a church, 
where he held out his hat for alms from arriving wor- 
shipers. To this church there came every day a cer- 
tain well-to-do gentleman to offer up his prayers, and 
this gentleman was accustomed to deposit a ten-cen- 
tavo piece in the waiting beggar's hat as he came up 
the stairs. But it happened that the gentleman fell 
ill, and for two weeks was confined to his bed. As 
soon as he was able to be out again, he resumed his 
attendance at daily worship, and as he passed up he 
put his coin in the beggar's hat and was going on into 
the church. The beggar seized his coat-tail. "Par- 
don me, senor," he said, "but have you not a little 
account to settle with me?" "What!" asked the 
gentleman. "An account with you? What do you 
mean?" "Why, yes," said the beggar. "You are 
accustomed, are you not, to give me ten centavos as 
you come in? " "Well, have I not just given you the 
coin? " " Ah, but you give me ten centavos every 
day. You have not been here for fourteen days. 



GOD GIVES US A NEW CHANCE. 51 



Therefore you owe me a hundred and forty cent avos." 
" Get out ! " answered the gentleman. " This is alms, 
not a salary, and I owe you no alms when I am ab- 
sent. " The beggar drew himself up loftily and flung 
back the ten-centavo piece to the gentleman. " Well, 
then," he exclaimed, "if you have no more honor than 
that, you can go and get another beggar ! I shall have 
no more to do with you ! " One might also see in 
this story an illustration of how an appetite or lust, 
yielded to, grows into a habit and demands its daily 
food, except that there is this stronger point on the 
question of habit, that it demands a larger and still 
larger alms from day to day. 

GOD GIVES US A NEW CHANCE. 

Ella Higginson, under the title "When the Birds 
Go North Again," sings a pretty little song of hope, 
illustrating the goodness of God in giving to the sad- 
dest heart a new chance for blessing and achievements. 

Oh, every year hath its winter, 

And every year hath its rain — 
But a day is always coming 

When the birds go north again ; 

When new leaves swell in the forest, 
And grass springs green on the plain, 

And the alder's veins turn crimson— 
And the birds go north again. 

Oh, every heart hath its sorrow, 
And every heart hath its pain — 

But a day is always coming 
When the birds go north again. 



52 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



'Tis the sweetest thing to remember 

If courage be on the wane, 
When the cold, dark days are over — 

Why, the birds go north again. 

THE EFFECT OF CULTURE. 

* The Department of Agriculture at Washington has 
been sending out agents, who are food-students, into 
all parts of the world to discover if possible new 
sources of food-supply, and it is very interesting to 
note their reports. Among other things a wonderful 
reserve-fund for the human appetite is to be found in 
the vegetable diet of the Klamath Indians in Oregon. 
A novel variety of food forming a menu unknown to 
the civilized is offered in the pulp of the great yellow 
water-lily, which is converted into a farinaceous food ; 
in the weed known as goosefoot, which bears a black 
seed that is ground up for loaves and cakes ; and in 
the arrowhead, which in the fall develops a starchy 
white tuber at the end of the roots ; not to mention 
the tubers that resemble beets, turnips, and carrots, 
the nuts that are ground into "coffee," and the flower- 
leaves that furnish fairy-like desserts. The taming 
of wild fruits is another branch of the food-agent's 
business. Mr. Augustus Henry, who is an authority 
on Chinese flora, states that there are at least one hun- 
dred varieties of fruits growing wild in the interior of 
China that, if transplanted to another soil and prop- 
erly cultivated, would prove as important a food-sup- 
ply as our present necessary apple and pear. The Le 
Conte pear, which has revolutionized pear-growing in 



LIFE-SHIP ON FIRE. 



53 



Southern California, was originally the Chinese sand- 
pear, grown solely for ornamental purposes. The 
effect of culture in the vegetable world is not more 
marked than in the intellectual and spiritual worlds. 
Many men and women are growing up mere human 
weeds who might be a great blessing to humanity if 
the mind and heart were properly cultivated. 

THE LORD'S TORCHES. 

That God has a purpose in the talents he has given 
us and in the spiritual illumination bestowed upon us, 
and that unless we fulfil that purpose his gifts will 
cease, Shakespeare makes very clear in the first act of 
" Measure for Measure " : 

Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do, 
Not light them for themselves. For if our virtues 
Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike 
As if we had them not. 

LIFE-SHIP ON FIRE. 

The captain of the ship Manuel Llaguna, which re- 
cently arrived in New York from Shanghai, reported 
that west of Bermuda he fell in with a burning ship 
at sea. The vessel's cargo was on fire and the flames 
lit up the sea for miles around. The captain circled 
about the ship, and lay by for eighteen hours, but he 
could not discern her name. There were no signs of 
life aboard, and the vessel had apparently been on 
fire for some time. What had become of her crew 
they could not learn. How many human life-ships 



54 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



are floating helplessly on the sea of life, burning 
down to utter ruin, enveloped in flames of lust and 
passion! The will power is driven from the helm, 
and the sails have perished. How unwise for any 
one to keep shut under the hatches the smoldering 
beginnings of such a flame ! The only safety is to 
destroy the fire at once. 

GOD'S JUSTICE. 

Surely no poet writing of God's dealings with men 
has ever more completely vindicated his justice con- 
cerning that vexed question of why the good man often 
misses riches and fame than Coleridge in his twin 
poems " Complaint " and " Reproof " : 

How seldom, friend, a good great man inherits 
Honor or wealth, with all his worth and pains ! 

It sounds like stories from the land of spirits, 

If any man obtain that which he merits 
Or any merit that which he obtains. 

For shame, dear friend ! Kenounce this canting strain ! 

What wouldst thou have a good great man obtain? 

Place — titles — salary — a gilded chain — 

Or throne of corses which his sword has slain? 

Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends ! 

Hath he not always treasures, always friends, 

The good great man? Three treasures, — love and light, 

And calm thoughts, regular as an infant's breath ; 
And three firm friends, more sure than day and night — 

Himself, his Maker, and the angel Death. 

CHARACTER TURNED BLACK. 

A Western paper has the story of a white man who 
recently turned black in less than an hour's time. It 



CONQUERING TEMPTATION. 55 



is asserted that from the tips of his toes to the top of 
his head he became as black as a negro, and from no 
apparent cause. He was employed in a tannery. He 
went to work as usual one morning and was feeling 
perfectly well. Soon he noticed that the workmen 
were looking at him queerly, and then their astonish- 
ment gave way to fear. He asked what was the mat- 
ter, and was told that he was turning black. The 
manager of the tannery sent him home, and by the 
time he arrived there he was ink black from head to 
foot. The physicians have not been able as yet to 
discover the cause of the strange occurrence. What- 
ever may be the truth in regard to this incident, cer- 
tain it is that men's characters change from the white 
innocence of youth to the black sinfulness of iniquity, 
and men get so accustomed to seeing that sort of trans- 
formation that it often happens without creating any 
excitement. It comes on so insidiously that a man 
passes through the transformation and is not himself 
seriously alarmed, but the final result is none the less 
hideous and terrible because the transformation comes 
by degrees. 

CONQUERING TEMPTATION. 

There is the smoke of battle and the atmosphere of 
victory in these great lines of Browning, which tell of 
man's power through God's grace to overcome the 
temptations that beset him : 

Was the trial sore? 
Temptation sharp? Thank God a second time. 



56 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Why comes temptation but for man to meet 
And master, and make crouch beneath his foot, 
And so be pedestaled in triumph? Pray, 
"Lead us iDto no such temptations, Lord !" 
Yea, but, O Thou whose servants are the bold, 
Lead such temptations by the head and hair, 
Reluctant dragons, up to who dares fight, 
That so he may do battle and have praise. 

COURAGE WINS RESPECT. 

Gen. Hector MacDonald, who came to the front in 
South Africa and was seriously wounded, has a great 
record for courage and daring. He was taken prisoner 
at Majuba Hill by the Boers, but he remained to the 
end unbeaten, for when, after a desperate resistance, 
he was at last disarmed and a couple of Boers ran at 
him, MacDonald met them with his naked fists, and 
his assailants went reeling back. Finding him so 
hard to tackle, they were for putting a bullet through 
his head, but a Boer with an appreciation of pluck 
intervened. "No," he said, "this is a brave man, 
and we shall spare him. Let us take him prisoner at 
all hazards." No man has ever had greater success 
in making soldiers out of uncivilized natives than 
MacDonald. He has been usually greatly loved by 
them, but once his dusky Sudanese mutinied against 
him. One day during the march MacDonald over- 
heard two or three of the native soldiers saying: 
" Wait until the next fight and I will take care that 
this slave-driver of a colonel does not come Out alive. 
I myself will shoot him. " MacDonald recognized the 
men by their voices, called a halt, and sternly ordered 



GOD'S LOVE FOR THE HUMBLE. 57 



the culprits to step out from the ranks. Facing them 
he cried : " Now, you are the men who are going to 
shoot me in the next fight. Why wait so long? Why 
not do it now? Here I am. Shoot me, if you dare ! " 
The rebels grounded their arms in sullen silence. 
"Why don't you shoot? " asked their colonel. "Be- 
cause you don't seem to care whether you die or not," 
and that reluctant answer explained the secret of his 
power over half-savage soldiers. There was no more 
grumbling, and the same men, and others like them, 
after that devotedly followed MacDonald on many a 
hard-fought battlefield. Eeal courage always wins 
respect. The secret of great moral leadership is, 
above all, in supreme moral courage. 

GOD'S LOVE FOR THE HUMBLE* 

James Eussell Lowell, in writing of the mission of 
the poet, describes and emphasizes his vision of God's 
care for little things, and his faith in God's care over 
the humble and the weak, as truly as his interest in 
the great and famous : 

He knew that the One Soul no more rejoices 

In the star's anthem than the insect's hum. 
He in his heart was ever meek and humble, 

And yet with kingly pomp his numbers ran, 
As he foresaw how all things false should crumble 

Before the free, uplifted soul of man ; 
And, when he was made full to overflowing 

With all the loveliness of heaven and earth, 
Outrushed his song, like molten iron glowing, 

To show God sitting by the humblest hearth. 



58 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



HUMAN FALCONS. 

Falconry, a sport which, was common in Europe 
two or three centuries ago, is being revived among 
the nobility. It is said that the Dutch hawk-catchers 
are unable to take enough falcons to meet the orders 
of their English and French patrons. These Dutch 
falcons, taken when following the flights of all kinds 
of birds, are the pick of the catch, but far more are 
taken from nests when very young. In England the 
Hawking Club meets every spring on Salisbury Plain 
to fly falcons at rooks. Everything is as well done as 
in the days of James I. There may be from twelve 
to twenty falcons, with the falconer and his cart, and 
the members on horseback. There is plenty of dash 
and excitement in the business. Sometimes an old 
and keen falcon is flown at a rook within easy reach, 
but she does not want the prey so near at hand, and 
so mounts to the very clouds till she spies another 
flock, into which she darts like a shooting-star. Eid- 
ers dash off across the down, their eyes fixed upon the 
hawk, and the falconer shouts, " She has killed ! " 
when he sees something fall from the flock. Off dash 
the riders, who have marked the descent of the vic- 
tim, and soon the bird is taken up. In America we 
license the falconers in all our towns and cities. In 
some cities we license many thousands of them. They 
do not hunt for rooks, but for men and boys. They 
do not go out on the plain after them, but draw them 
into their net and work on them at close range, and 



THE DRINK ADDER. 



59 



every day in all parts of the country the newspapers 
bring us the news of the victims, and tell of this fal- 
con and that falcon which has killed its prey. A hun- 
dred thousand men and boys and women have the 
beak of the cruel bird stabbed into their hearts every 
year. But the falconer pays his license fee, and the 
people shut their eyes to the horrid butchery, while 
the work of death goes on. 

RIGHTEOUS AWARDS. 

Emerson had an abiding faith that every man would 
get in the end exactly what he deserved. He brings 
this out in these virile lines taken from his poem 
" Compensation " : 

Man's the elm, and Wealth the vine ; 
Stanch and strong the tendrils twine : 
Tho the frail ringlets thee deceive, 
None from its stock that vine can reave. 
Tear not, then, thou child infirm, 
There's no god dare wrong a worm ; 
Laurel crowns cleave to deserts, 
And power to him who power exerts. 
Hast not thy share? On wing&d feet, 
Lo ! it rushes thee to meet ; 
And all that Nature made thy own, 
Floating in air or pent in stone, 
Will rive the hills and swim the sea, 
And, like thy shadow, follow thee. 

THE DRINK ADDER. 

A story comes from Paris of an American girl em- 
ployed as a typewriter at an American bicycle agency 



60 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



there, who inherited $18,000 from an uncle in Amer- 
ica. She was a quiet, self-respecting girl until she 
got the money, but after obtaining her little fortune 
she became acquainted with some rather fast Ameri- 
can friends, among whom she acquired the habit of 
strong drink. In less than two months she was lying 
critically ill in a hospital, having been picked up in a 
state of frightful intoxication. Her money had been 
either exhausted or stolen, and she is now penniless. 
She begs constantly for strong drink. The physicians 
say she may recover temporarily, but that the liquor 
habit is so strong upon her that it will kill her. Both 
for man and woman the Word of God is true when it 
speaks of the serpent in the cup, and declares that at 
the last it "stingeth like an adder." 

BEARING UP UNDER TRIALS, 

What a splendid spectacle of pluck and endurance 
and holy courage blind old Milton is when we hear 
him saying: 

Yet I argue not 
Against Heaven's hand, or will not bate a jot 
Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer 
, Right onward. 

THE SAVING SALT. 

By the terms of peace agreed to by the United 
States and Spain as a basis for a treaty of peace, we 
come into possession not only of Porto Eico, but of 
all the other West Indian islands except Cuba. Most 
of these islands are very small, some being hardly 



S UGARCOA TING THE DEVIL. 61 

more than specks on the ocean's surface, while others 
are large enough to be habitable, with fresh water for 
those who choose to inhabit them. The largest of them 
is the Cayo Eomano, with an estimated area of one 
hundred and eighty square miles, its surface broken 
by three hillocks. The chief industry there, and, in- 
deed, the only one that will thrive, is that of gather- 
ing salt. The island is filled with depressions from one 
to two feet deep. During the storms the waves dash 
over the keys and leave the depressions filled with 
water. When summer comes with its burning sun, the 
heat dries the water and a deposit of salt is left. If 
we have the saving salt of goodness in our character 
and spirit, tho we may seem to be greatly hindered in 
the good deeds we try to accomplish, yet our conver- 
sation and influence will leave a deposit of helpfulness 
in the hearts of all those who come to know us. 
Many people unconsciously do a great deal of good in 
that way. Their salt never loses its savor. 

SUGARCOATING THE DEVIL, 

In these lines from the third act of "Hamlet" 
Shakespeare runs a sharp rapier through the heart of 
the foolish compromises men make with evil, and 
makes appear silly enough those who try to hide the 
evil principle beneath a pious or sanctimonious phrase 
or manner. 



'Tis too much proved, that, with devotion's visage, 
And pious action we do sugar o'er 
The devil himself. 



€2 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



EYES TO THE BLIND. 

A little daughter of a railroad engineer in Fernan- 
dina, Ma., who was born blind, with cataracts over 
her eyes, recently saw the light for the first time 
after a successful operation by a great surgeon in Bal- 
timore. After the operation was performed, the 
child's eyes were soothingly dressed, and she fell into 
a refreshing sleep. The next day the bandages were 
removed, and after moving her eyelids quickly up and 
down for some seconds, she exclaimed in great joy: 
" I can see ! Oh, there is light ! " The mother of the 
child was at her side, and both of them were wild 
with joy at the child's recovery. We are the disciples 
of Him who is the Light of the world, and the hap- 
piest privilege of our lives is to attract those who are 
in blindness to the great Physician, who can fill them 
with the true light. 

THE POINT OF VIEW. 

A great deal depends upon how we look at life. 
Looking on the dark side with a carping, critical eye, 
most people can find trouble enough so that life will 
not seem worth living. But if we try to make the 
best of it and seek to make it better for somebody 
else, we shall be astonished to see how much glad- 
ness there is in it. Paul Laurence Dunbar sets the 
truth very clear in these two verses : 

A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in, 
A minute to smile and an hour to weep in, 



LOOKING ON BOTH SIDES. 63 



A pint of joy to a peck of trouble, 
And never a laugh but the moans come double ; 
And that is life ! 

A crust and a corner that love makes precious, 
With a smile to warm and the tears to refresh us ; 
And the joys seem sweeter when care comes after, 
And the moan is the finest of foils for laughter ! 
And that is life ! 

CHRISTIANITY GOES TO THE ROOT. 

Shortly before his death, which occurred in 1866, 
Massimo d'Azeglio, statesman, orator, poet, the 
painter of "Orlando Furioso," but, above all, the 
trusty friend and valued counselor of Victor Emman- 
uel, was talking to a Frenchman, who congratulated 
him upon the unification of Italy. " Yes," was the 
reply, "we have made a new Italy. Now we must 
endeavor to make new Italians." Christianity does 
not propose to save sinners by any sort of outward 
or ceremonial process, but by the inner transforma- 
tion of the heart with its affections and ambitions. 
Becoming a Christian is to become a new creature, 
mastered by the spirit of Christ. 

LOOKING ON BOTH SIDES. 

A good deal of the sorrow and trouble that come 
between the rich and the poor is because people look 
only from their own point of view. The ideal of 
Christianity is that the strong and the weak, the rich 
and the poor, shall treat each other with brotherly 



64 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



sympathy and fellowship. Sarah K. Bolton sets forth 
in a little poem the danger of growing hard and cold 
in either severe poverty or great riches. 

When all day long, footsore and tired, 

We seek for work "but seek in vain, 
And wan-eyed children cry for food, 

And mothers stifle sobs of pain ; 
While other homes are bright and warm 

And table laid without regard 
To hungry, homeless, shivering poor, 

Oh ! keep us, Lord, from feeling hard. 

When riches have been won, and life 

Is full of luxury and care, 
With costly yachts, or splendid homes, 

And hosts of friends our joys to share ; 
We turn our faces from the slums, 

And selfishly our time we guard 
Lest want annoy us with its calls ; 

Lord, keep us then from being hard. 

A RESCUED VIOLIN* 

A Baltimore musician has recently made a rare find 
in discovering Thomas Jefferson's famous violin, in 
the hands of a nonogenarian negro, near Charlottes- 
ville, Va. He had heard of its existence accidentally, 
and hunted up the old negro at the base of the Mon- 
ticello mountains. He asked to see the violin, and 
the old negro, bent with his ninety-three years, 
brought it out to him. Opening it, he saw that the 
moths had had a feast with the red lining of the 
leather case ; but the instrument itself was wrapped 
in a piece of old cloth, and the minute the musician's 



GOD OUR ONLY HOPE. 



65 



eyes looked on it lie knew it was a specimen of the 
best of Nicholas Amati's violins. He succeeded in 
bargaining for it, and found that all that was needed 
were a few repairs, and it is now a singing beauty with- 
out a faulty tone. There is no musical instrument in 
the world, however, equal to the human heart. Christ 
is the great discoverer of the heart and its music ; he 
is seeking after lost men because he knows the sweet 
music that shall come from their hearts at his touch. 
This is the glory of Christianity : that it seeks after 
the lost and makes music where the world hears only 
discord. 

GOD OUR ONLY HOPE, 

Faber teaches what many sincere Christians have 
felt : that even in the darkest days of trial and diffi- 
culty the Christian is better off than the man without 
God. He has his trials like other men, and God 
sometimes seems to hide himself ; but to the man who 
has no God earth is always dumb, and there is no 
message of inspiration anywhere at any time. Faber' s 
words are graphic and paint a very realistic picture : 

Oh, it is hard to work for God, 

To rise and take his part, 
Upon this battlefield of earth, 

And not sometimes lose heart. 

He hides himself so wondrously, 

As tho there were no God ; 
He is least seen when all the powers 

Of ill are most abroad. 

Or he deserts us at the hour 
The fight is all but lost ; 

5 



66 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



And seems to leave us to ourselves 
Just when we need him most. 

Yet there is less to try our faith 
In our mysterious creed, 

Thau in the Godless look of earth 
In these our hours of need. 



A MONARCH HELD CAPTIVE. 

Some interesting details in regard to the present 
condition of Samory, the dethroned African monarch, 
have been received by the French Minister of the 
Colonies. To outward seeming Samory is calm and 
contented, but at heart he is quite the reverse. He 
can not rid himself of the idea that he will be mur- 
dered some day, and he has brooded so much over his 
coming doom that he recently made a determined 
effort to commit suicide. Samory still retains with 
him a few pieces of his barbaric furniture, but all his 
gold and silver treasure, which consists mainly of 
gold rings and silver plate, has been confiscated by 
the French Government, and is to be sold. His sil- 
ver cuirass, however, a massive and unique work of 
art, will be placed in the War Museum at Paris, 
Samory, it is said, has grieved much over the loss of 
these treasures. Every sinner is a captive monarch 
who has lost the most precious treasures of the soul. 
Man was made for high and lofty fellowship as the 
son of God, and when he is taken captive by the devil 
at his will and loses his kingly power over himself, 
he bids farewell to all true peace. 



WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. 67 

INCARNATE LOVE, 

Christianity is love incarnated in human life. No 
one has expressed it better, outside of the Bible, than 
Coleridge in these words from the " Ancient Mariner 99 : 

He prayeth well who loveth well 
Both, man and bird and beast. 
He prayeth best who loveth best 
All things both great and small ; 
For the dear God, who loveth us, 
He made and loveth all. 

"WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. 

The application of what is called wireless telegra- 
phy to practical purposes has made great advance dur- 
ing the last few months, the British post-office having 
erected experimental stations in The Solent, one at 
Bournemouth, and the other at Alum Bay, in the Isle 
of "Wight, a distance of four and a half miles. Across 
this distance, and even farther, signals have been sent 
with entire success, and communications, with equally 
satisfactory results, were made to a vessel cruising 
about in the open sea. Inside the transmitting- sta- 
tion is a powerful induction-coil by means of which a 
spark is passed between two balls. This spark fol- 
lows a wire to the top of a mast a hundred feet high 
or more, giving out electrical radiations which are 
caught by a corresponding upright wire on the ship at 
sea, or on another receiving- station on land. The ex- 
periments so far completed show that no difficulty 



68 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



whatever would be experienced in communicating 
across the air to a lighthouse or guardship where a 
submarine cable would be destroyed. Wet or foggy 
weather only improves the signals. That is like the 
communication which God holds with the hearts of his 
people. To catch his signal our hearts must be in 
sympathy with his, but when that is so, no fog-storm 
of sorrow or trial can interfere with our reception of 
the heavenly message. Across the viewless air, where 
no wire is visible to human eye, God can speak to the 
heart that is sensitive to his presence. 

FACING THE SPECTERS OF THE MIND. 

Any man who will call to his help the divine fel- 
lowship of Jesus Christ may face all the doubts and 
specters of his own mind and forever silence them, as 
did Tennyson's friend: 

He fought his doubts and gathered strength, 
He would not make his judgment blind, 
He faced the specters of the mind 

And laid them : thus he came at length 

To find a stronger faith his own ; 

And Power was with him in the night, 
Which makes the darkness and the light, 

And dwells not in the light alone, 

But in the darkness and the cloud ; 
As over Sinai's peaks of old, 
While Israel made their gods of gold, 

Altho the trumpet blew so loud. 



COMFORT FOR THE CHRISTIAN WORKER. 69 



MIRRORS AND MORALS, 

An old trapper who recently attended church in a 
Western city said he heard the preacher assert that 
what the savage needed was a mirror ; that the savage 
has no mirror; but if he had, he would be more 
cleanly. Commenting on it, the old backwoodsman 
remarked that all our American savages pride them- 
selves a great deal on their mirrors. He spent his 
youth among the Umatillas, Nez Perces, Snakes, and 
Blackfeet, and, while they did not have full-length 
mirrors in their wigwams, fully two thirds of the war- 
riors had hand-mirrors tied to the horns of their sad- 
dles by buckskin strings, and they used these mirrors 
continually. The savages were proud of their own 
ugliness, which seemed to them to be beauty. And 
so there are many men going on in sin to-day who 
are proud of the very scars caused by their sins. 
Morally they are ugly and loathsome, but they do not 
know it. It is only when you can bring a man face 
to face with Jesus Christ, and he sees in the pure and 
noble Christ what manhood ought to be, that he gets 
a proper idea of the ugliness of his sins. 

COMFORT FOR THE CHRISTIAN WORKER. 

In " The Last Walk in Autumn " Whittier sings of 
the comfort which the Christian worker has in his 
faith that God will bring triumph to the cause for 
which he struggles, and that he is not working in 
vain, tho victory may not come in his time. 



70 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



And I will trust that He who heeds 

The life that hides in mead and wold, 
Who hangs yon alder's crimson beads, 

And stains these mosses green and gold, 
Will still, as He hath done, incline 
His gracious care to me and mine ; 
Grant what we ask aright, from wrong debar, 
And, as the earth grows dark, make brighter every star ! 

I have not seen, I may not see, 

My hopes for man take form in fact, 
But God will give the victory 

In due time ; in that faith I act. 
And he who sees the future sure, 
The baffling present may endure, 
And bless, meanwhile, the unseen Hand that leads 
The heart's desire beyond the halting step of deeds. 

CHOOSING DARKNESS. 

A gentleman in one of the Southern States discov- 
ered a white owl's nest, which was in a hole of a lean- 
ing dead palm, overhanging the river. He watched 
the growth of the birds until he considered them old 
enough to move. He then transferred them from the 
nest to a box, and they became great pets. They 
were always timid, however, and desired to hide dur- 
ing the day. All day long they would sit quietly in 
the darkest place they could find, making no sound 
except when approached, when a sharp snapping of 
their beaks announced that they wished no intruders. 
To turn them out of their box in daytime meant a 
quick return to it. At night, however, they were in 
their element. When turned loose, they walked 
around, flapped their wings, came up and took food 



WHEN WAR-DRUMS SHALL BE STILL. 71 



from the hand, drank water from a spoon, and seemed 
to be in the greatest spirits. Men with evil thoughts 
and purposes are like these owls, in that they choose 
the darkness rather than the light, desiring to cover 
up their evil ways. It is a great thing to so live, even 
in the nesting-place of one's own imagination, that 
the sunshine is the natural and welcome atmosphere 
of the soul. 

HEROISM. 

That heroic character is not fed on sweets, but 
rather on struggle and trial and heart-break, Emerson 
emphasizes in his little poem, entitled " Heroism " : 

Euby wine is drunk by knaves. 
Sugar tends to fatten slaves, 
Rose and vine-leaf deck buffoons ; 
Thunder-clouds are Jove's festoons, 
Drooping oft in wreaths of dread, 
Lightning-knotted, round his head ; 
The hero is not fed on sweets, 
Daily his own heart he eats ; 
Chambers of the great are jails, 
And head-winds right for royal sails. 

WHEN WAR-DRUMS SHALL BE STILL. 

A gentleman residing in Hartford, Conn., has in 
his possession a bass-drum with a very remarkable 
history. The drum was made in Pittsfield, Mass., in 
1836, and has been sounded on many important occa- 
sions. It has taken part in the inauguration of Presi- 
dents Van Buren, Harrison, Buchanan, Lincoln, Gar- 



72 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



field, Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison. It was 
used at the reception of Kossuth, the reception to the 
Prince of Wales, the opening of the Erie Canal, the 
opening of the suspension bridge at Niagara Falls, 
and at a serenade to Jenny Lind. It went to the 
front with the Seventy-first New York Regiment in 
1861, and was present at the first battle of Bull Bun. 
There are two bullet-holes through the head of the 
drum as a mark of the battle. Some day the business 
of the war-drum shall cease, and that inspiriting mu- 
sical instrument shall no longer incite men to deeds of 
blood, but shall inspire their hearts to heroic deeds in 
behalf of the sublimer victories of peace. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF TIME. 

Many people live as tho they were to live for- 
ever, or had so many lives on earth that they could 
afford to throw one away. But that we have only 
one life here, and, therefore, every moment is of crit- 
ical importance, Bonar, the great hymn-writer, has 
beautifully expressed : 

Not many lives, but only one, have we, 

One, only one ; 
How sacred should that one life ever be, 

That narrow span. 
Day after day filled up with blessed toil, 
Hour after hour still bringing in new spoil. 

A MARK FOR THE ARCHERS. 

The military students of Tung-Chou, China, are 
said to be a conspicuous nuisance. They have a way 



MORE COSTLY THAN GOLD. 73 



of using the main streets in the city as convenient 
spots for practising archery, and citizens need to be 
constantly on the alert to avoid nights of arrows. 
People are often struck by arrows, and many are 
severely wounded through the arrogance and careless- 
ness of these military archers. Our own streets are 
full of hurtling arrows ; they fly from the saloon and 
the gambling-hell and the brothel. They come whir- 
ling from the liquor-store, where the archer has a gov- 
ernment license to shoot whom he will. No man is 
safe from these flying arrows of evil unless he is 
equipped with the full armor of the Lord. 

PRAYER WITHOUT "WORKS. 

Wilhelm Muller has put the case of those who make 
long prayers and a great show of their religion, but 
who are never found at the front when there is good, 
hard work to be done for the Lord's cause, in a very 
unmistakable setting: 

Lazy at work, but zealous in praying ; 
No one to pump, but fine organ playing. 

MORE COSTLY THAN GOLD. 

The expression " worth their weight in gold " is a 
familiar one. It used to be an accepted fact that 
gold was the most valuable of the precious metals, 
but now that has ceased to be true. There has re- 
cently appeared, under warrant of the highest scien- 
tific authority, a statement of values based upon the 



74 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



commercial prices of various rare metals. In this 
statement a pound avoirdupois of gold is put as worth 
$300; but chromium is worth $490 a pound; palla- 
dium, $560; uranium, $980, and osmium, $1,000. 
Barium costs $1,900 a pound; rhodium, $2,500; 
arium, $3,600; indium, $4,400; thorium, $8,300, 
and rubidium, $9,500. All these figures seem small, 
however, when compared to the value of gallium, 
which, according to the scientific standard, is worth 
$68,000 a pound. So it is shown that even in the 
metallic world there are many things more precious 
than gold. In the intellectual and spiritual world 
there are a great many things that gold will not buy. 
It cannot purchase a good conscience, or contentment, 
or any of those rare and beautiful virtues which are 
to be found only in the treasure-house of the soul. 
Gold is a good servant, but a poor god. 

MORAL CLIMBING, 

Browning believed that the certain evidence of 
man's sonship to God was to be found in his capacity 
for moral progress. In his poem, " A Death in the 
Desert," he says: 

Man 

Creeps ever on from fancies to the fact, 
And in this striving 

Finds progress, man's distinctive mark alone— 
Not God's and not the beast's : God is, they are, 
Man partly is and wholly hopes to be. . . . ' 
Getting increase of knowledge, since he learns 
Because he lives, which is to be a man 
Set to instruct himself by his past self. 



SAVING OTHERS. 



75 



HONEST MONEY. 

A bankrupt and disgraced promoter of fraudulent 
schemes, during the days of his seeming prosperity 
and while he was making lavish displays of great 
wealth, presented the famous cathedral of St. Paul, 
in London, with a communion service of solid gold 
which cost $125,000. Since then it has come to be 
known that this man was a shameless fraud, and that 
his money was filched from his dupes by cunning 
schemes. The trustees of the cathedral have, with 
a commendable sense of honor, returned to the scoun- 
drel's creditors the full cost of the communion service 
received by them. In that way they have kept their 
hands clean and stainless. It would hasten the com- 
ing of the reign of Christ on earth if every Christian 
business man would thus hold himself clear of every 
possible connection with dishonest money. 

SAVING OTHERS. 

Matthew Arnold wrote of his father one of the 
most beautiful things that it is possible to say of any 
one — that he had the power to save others. No man 
has lived in vain who can realize that such has been 
the truth concerning his career. Arnold sings : 

To us thou wast still 
Cheerful and helpful and firm ! 
Therefore to thee it was given 
Many to save with thyself ; 
And, at the end of thy day, 



76 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



O faithful shepherd, to come, 
Bringing thy sheep in thy hand. 
And through thee I believe 
In the noble and great who are gone. 

DROWNED IN SWEETS. 

A man in Eastern Maine was busy boiling maple 
sap in a great iron kettle not long ago, when lie 
was suddenly made aware of the approach of two 
bears, who had been attracted by the fragrant smell 
of the kettle of sweetness. The sugar-maker got his 
gun and spent the entire afternoon and evening in pur- 
suit of the larger bear ; but it finally escaped him, 
finding refuge in a mountain cave. When he had 
gone off after the bear, he had left a blazing fire under 
the huge kettle in which he boiled down his sap. 
Tired out from the hunt, he was late getting to work 
the next morning. Along in the middle of the fore- 
noon, when he came in from the woods with a pail of 
sap, he looked into the kettle and saw something 
which nearly took his breath away. On the snow 
about the fire-pit and daubed against the sides of the 
kettle were shapeless masses of dirty maple sugar, 
while inside the kettle, soldered and sealed fast in a 
matrix of sugar, was a dead bear cub, weighing nearly 
one hundred pounds. It had come up on the pole 
above the kettle, and while gorging itself with sweets 
had evidently slipped from the pole and been drowned 
in the cooling syrup. Many men and women are 
drowned in the sweets of life. Men may be drowned 
in pleasure as well as in gall and wormwood. Pleas- 



ELIJAH'S WEAK SPOT. 



77 



ure is a beautiful attendant, but a tyrannical master, 
and when sought as the chief end of life, brings its 
votaries to destruction. 

FALLING FACE FORWARD. 

It is better to keep one's face forward, even tho 
we can not see all that is before us. Tho we grope 
blindly, if we still steadily climb upward and onward, 
seeking to do God's will, we may be sure he will bring 
us to our desired goal. There are times when the 
greatest souls pass through experiences like those about 
which Tennyson writes : 

I falter where I firmly trod, 

And falling with my weight of cares 
Upon the great world's altar-stairs 

That slope through darkness up to God, 

I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope, 
And gather dust and chaff, and call 
To what I feel is Lord of all, 

And faintly trust the larger hope. 

ELIJAH'S "WEAK SPOT. 

After Elijah's victorious day on Mount Carmel, it 
seems very strange to find him running from Jezebel 
and crouching under a desert shrub wishing to die. 
Elijah's weak spot was his stomach. While Elijah 
was hungry and tired he was subject to the "blues," 
and a woman with a bad tongue in her head and a 
vicious temper could make him run like a whipped 



78 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



cur. The Lord knew this, and so he fed Elijah and 
gave him a chance to rest, and then he was as good 
as new. He went back again to make and unmake 
kings with all the courage of other days. When you 
are tempted to panic, find out where the weak spot is. 
Perhaps you have malaria, or dyspepsia, or liver com- 
plaint. Many a weak body has put to rout a strong 
soul. Be gentle to people tempted in that way — as 
God is. 

THE "WAGES OF SIN. 

That the wages of sin are terrible, even in this 
world, Lord Byron bears brilliant and awful testi- 
mony. Describing the blackened ruin of a sinful 
heart, he says : 

It is as if the dead could feel 
The icy worm around them steal, 
And shudder as the reptiles creep 
To revel o'er their rotting sleep, 
Without the power to scare away 
The cold consumers of their clay. 

THE BUFFING- WHEEL. 

The metal-polishers of New York have recently 
called attention to the unhealthy character of their 
work, in an appeal to Governor Boosevelt to enforce 
the law made for their protection. Most of the pol- 
ishers' work is done by the aid of a buffing-wheel, 
which revolves with great rapidity. The polisher 
takes from the floor, for instance, a large urn fash- 
ioned from sheets of hammered brass. The surface 



VANISHED DOUBTS. 



79 



is dull and rough. The workman presses the base 
against this revolving wheel. At once there arises a 
yellow shower mingling with the dirty white powder 
and the floating shreds. This is what the metal -pol- 
ishers breathe — earth, brass, and cloth. In many 
places there is no fresh air and but little light. 
Lungs and eyes are soon destroyed in this whirlwind 
of filth sent from the wheel making twenty-five hun- 
dred revolutions a minute. The statutes require that 
in each polishing lathe there shall be an exhaust-fan 
to carry off the dust, that each operator shall have 
two hundred and fifty square feet of air to breathe, 
and enough daylight to see what he is doing. Life 
is a bufhng- wheel to many of our fellow beings, and 
it is the Christian's duty to do everything that he can 
to bring light and atmosphere to bear, so that not 
only the body, but the soul, may have a chance to 
breathe and be strong. 

VANISHED DOUBTS. 

The power of worship to banish and dissipate the 
doubts and fears that beset our minds and hearts is 
beautifully described by Longfellow : 

And when the solemn and deep church bell 

Entreats the soul to pray, 
The midnight phantoms feel the spell, 

The shadows sweep away. 

Down the broad Vale of Tears afar 

The spectral camp is fled ; 
Faith shineth as a morning star, 

Our ghastly fears are dead. 



80 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



SEIZING OPPORTUNITY, 

A plain wreath of oak leaves was sent through the 
English consul in Berlin in the hope that it might 
find a place on Mr Gladstone's coffin. The sender 
was a Berlin shoemaker who owed his success in busi- 
ness to the "Grand Old Man." About twenty years 
ago this shoemaker came to London and established a 
small workshop, but in spite of industry and strict 
attention to business he continued so poor that he 
had not even enough money to buy leather for work 
which had been ordered. One day he was in the 
whispering gallery in St. Paul's cathedral with his 
betrothed bride, to whom he confided the sad condi- 
tion of his affairs, and the impossibility of their mar- 
riage. The young girl gave him all her small sa- 
vings, with which he went next day to purchase the 
required leather, without, however, knowing that he 
was followed by a gentleman commissioned to make 
inquiries about him. The shoemaker was not a little 
surprised when the leather merchant told him that he 
was willing to open a small account with him. In 
this way did fortune begin to smile upon him, and 
soon, to his great astonishment, he received orders 
from the wealthiest circle in London society, and his 
business became so well established that he was able 
to marry and have a comfortable home of his own. 
He was known in London for years as the "Parlia- 
ment Shoemaker," but only when, to please his Ger- 
man wife, he left London for Berlin, did the leather 



SHINING AND SERVICE. 



81 



merchant tell him that he owed his " credit account " 
to none other than Mr. Gladstone. The Prime Min- 
ister had been in the whispering gallery when the poor 
shoemaker had been telling his betrothed of his pov- 
erty, and owing to the peculiar acoustics of the gal- 
lery had heard every word that had been said. This 
story suggests not only how Mr. Gladstone's wide- 
reaching influence was helped by his seizing upon the 
smallest opportunities to do good, but also that the 
house of God is always a whispering gallery ; and 
tho no prime minister of earth may hear us as we 
breathe out our sorrows there, the Prime Minister of 
heaven will never fail to hear and heed. 

SELF-RELIANCE. 

Every man must finally depend on himself for the 
building of his career. There is a very important 
sense in which Paul's words, "Every man shall bear 
his own burden," are true. That an honorable or 
famous ancestry can be of no value to us unless we 
have first proved our own importance is very bril- 
liantly set forth by Mtiller : 

Ancestors are ciphers, which, to ciphers added, naught amount ; 
Set an integer before them, and the ciphers all will count. 

SHINING AND SERVICE. 

Our new Hawaiian possessions bring to us two very 
distinguished volcanoes, Mauna Loa and Kilauea. 
They are often confounded, many persons supposing 
6 



82 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



that the two are names of the same mountain, or that 
one is a special name applied to the crater of the 
other. As a matter of fact, the two are quite dis- 
tinct, altho they are but sixteen miles apart, and are 
probably but different vents for the same internal fire. 
Kilauea is much lower than Mauna Loa ; the latter is 
one of the loftiest mountains on the globe, being over 
14,000 feet above the level of the sea; while the 
former is scarcely 5,000 feet, and quite a distinct ele- 
vation from the famous mountain which forms the 
most noted landmark in the world. Mauna Loa lifts 
its head above the region of vegetation, and even 
under a tropical sun is covered with perpetual snow. 
Its white top can be seen at sea a distance of one hun- 
dred and fifty miles. Humboldt says that it is the 
best illustration in the world of the visibility of a 
mountain. Kilauea, on the contrary, is merely a hill 
by the side of Mauna Loa, but has a crater which for 
size exceeds anything of the kind elsewhere in the 
world. These two mountains are suggestive of Chris- 
tian character in service. We are to let the light of 
our Christian faith and conduct shine abroad like 
Mauna Loa, so that all may see, and bless God. On 
the other hand, it is often those who are lowly and 
obscure in position, like Kilauea, who give forth the 
largest measure of devotion. 

CORRUPT USE OF WEALTH. 

If Shakespeare were living now and writing of 
American politics, he would not need to change the 



SERVING GOD IN LITTLE THINGS. 83 



words set clown in the fourth act of "Timon of 
Athens." 

What is here? Gold? 

This yellow slave 
Will knit and break religions ; bless the accursed ; 
Make the hoar leprosy adored ; place thieves, 
And give them title, knee, and approbation, 
With senators on the bench. 

SERVING GOD IN LITTLE THINGS. 

There was a man in London who had ventured upon 
various publishing schemes with but poor success, 
and was beginning to despair of ever making a for- 
tune, when by chance he bethought himself of a huge 
scrapbook which his wife had compiled of various 
literary odds and ends that had enchained her fancy. 
She called her scrapbook "Tit-Bits," and it occurred 
to her husband that such odds and ends, published in 
periodical form, might interest other people as well 
as his wife. The result of this meditation on his part 
was the appearance of a little penny paper called Tit- 
Bits, which proved so popular and gained such a wide 
circulation that its proprietor is now a millionaire 
many times over, and a baronet, while his wife, whose 
scrapbook proved the cornerstone of their prosperity, 
finds her reward in the title of Lady Newnes. There 
are many of us who are willing to serve God in great 
ventures, and are ready to devote ourselves to some 
great vow, who yet refuse to surrender to him in the 
little things, the tit-bits of daily life. It would be 
well if we would turn our consecration around and be- 



84 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



gin by giving the Lord the little things, and then the 
larger sacrifices wonld follow as a matter of course. 

SURE FOUNDATIONS* 

Emerson never wrote truer lines than these con- 
cerning the foundations of the state and the nation : 

Fear, Craft, and Avarice 
Can not rear a State. 
Out of dust to build 
What is more than dust, — 

When the church is social worth, 
When the state-house is the hearth, 
Then the perfect State is come. 

UNITED ENERGY. 

A naturalist observed an encounter in the jungle of 
Tambak between a large python and some wild pigs. 
A young pig had been seized by the monster serpent, 
and its cries of distress summoned about twenty of 
the herd to an attack. They gored the python sav- 
agely with their tusks and succeeded in so harassing 
and lacerating it that it was forced to relinquish its 
prey, and was afterward killed by the naturalist. 
Energy and unity of purpose among the weakest group 
of God's people are more than a match for the old ser- 
pent of evil who will seek to hinder them or destroy 
some member of their flock. A united church ani- 
mated by earnest purpose can work miracles now in 
the overcoming of evil and in the capturing of any 
community for Christ. 



THE YOUTH OF THE SOUL. 



85 



WISER BEING GOOD THAN BAD. 

Eobert Browning is the poet of courage and hope 
and strength. He believed that seeming failure was 
only apparent failure after all, and that in the end 
God would justify himself : 

It's wiser being good than bad, 

It's safer being meek than fierce, 
It's fitter being sane than mad. 

My own hope is a sun will pierce 
The thickest cloud earth ever stretched, 

That after Last, returns the First ; 
That which began best can't end worst, 

Nor what God blest once prove accurst. 

RELATION BETWEEN CHARACTER AND LIFE* 

There was a time when the steel of Toledo, in 
Spain, was the most famous in all the earth, and To- 
ledo swords were sought after by the swordsmen of 
all lands. Now, however, both iron and steel are im- 
ported from abroad, and the manufacture has sunk 
below the average mediocrity of Europe. This is as 
striking an evidence as any of the universal decadence 
of Spain, for the famous weapons of Toledo attracted 
attention in song as far back as the days of the Ro- 
mans. If character depreciates, conduct will very 
soon show it. 

THE YOUTH OF THE SOUL. 

That the soul may remain young and strong, retain- 
ing its courage, when, as Paul says, "the earthly 



86 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



house of this tabernacle " is falling to pieces, is 
strongly illustrated in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 
poem, entitled "A Rhapsody of Life's Progress ": 

I am strong in the spirit — deep-thoughted, clear-eyed, — 
I could walk, step for step, with an angel beside, 
On the heaven-heights of Truth ! 
Oh, the soul keeps its youth — 
But the body faints sore, it is tired in the race, 
It sinks from the chariot ere reaching the goal ; 
It is weak, it is cold, 
The rein drops from its hold — 
It sinks back with death in its face. 

On, chariot ; on, soul ; 

Ye are all the more fleet — 

Be alone at the goal 

Of the strange and the sweet ! 

THE KEYNOTE OF LIFE, 

An ingenious inventor claims to have discovered 
that each individual has a key or tone which must 
harmonize with those of the people around him in 
order to insure a peaceful and happy life. Another 
gentleman, commenting on this, declares that it is not 
a new discovery, but that in teaching music he has 
for many years ascertained the individual key of each 
pupil before giving him his first lesson. This man 
claims that human beings are individualized or made 
known to each other by the pitch of their voices, and 
that the disposition of an individual is indicated by 
the key-tone of the voice, just the same as the tone 
of an E-fLat cornet or any other musical instrument 
with which the sound is produced. He says that per- 



WAYSIDE CACHES. 



87 



sons whose voices are pitched in the key of " C are 
of a social nature, and their whole make-up is amiable. 
"D" Toices indicate hopefulness and cheerfulness; 
"E 99 indicates a sanguine temperament. Those 
whose voices are pitched in " F 99 are earnest and sin- 
cere ; those in " G- 99 are egotistical and domineering ; 
those in " A 99 are fretful, nervous, and pathetic, while 
those in " B 99 are timid and apprehensive, and lack 
confidence and self-control. Whatever truth there 
may be — or lack of it — in this analysis, there can be 
no doubt that the keynote of a Christian life is love. 
The life is pitched in that tone, and any other pitch 
will bring discord. If you have started the tune of 
life at any other pitch, stop and start in again at once 
on the Christ-key. 

THE ALL-SEEING CHRIST. 

There is an old hymn which brings out clearly and 
with beautiful imagery the fact that Christ sees deep 
into our hearts, knows all our thoughts and purposes, 
and is able to be to us the great Physician of souls : 

What in the heart lies deepest ever, 
Unbreathed by mortal lip abroad, 

And heard by ear of mortal never, 
Takes voice before the throne of God ; 

The silence of our spirit tells 

Its tale aloud where Jesus dwells. 

WAYSIDE CACHES. 

A curious account is given by a Mr. Grose, who 
has just returned from a tour of exploration in the 



88 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Canadian Northwest, concerning the law of cache. A 
man going along wishes to leave, say, his coat behind, 
for reasons of personal comfort. He hangs it on a 
tree, and it will be there for him if he does not return 
for a week. Similarly the ownership of a suspended 
gun or rifle is respected. Mr. Grose says that a man 
would be safe in hanging his gold watch and chain 
on a tree with the assurance that it would be there 
when he returned to claim it. A cache of provisions 
is subject to a slight modification in respect to the 
rule of inviolability. A hungry Indian discovering 
such will make a fire in front of it, to make it appa- 
rent that there is no secrecy intended in connection 
with his visit. He will then take from the cache suffi- 
cient food for his immediate needs and pass on, with- 
out touching anything more. It seems to me that all 
the natural wealth of the world, such as the veins of 
gold and silver, and the fertile soil that will produce 
wheat and corn, or the grass to fatten flock and herds, 
are caches which God has stored away. A man has a 
right to take what he can use, but all beyond that he 
holds as a trustee, for the benefit of his weaker breth- 
ren. This is surely the Christian standpoint. How 
happy all the world would be if all enacted from this 
standpoint and lived in harmony with it! 

THE HELPFULNESS OF LITTLE THINGS. 

No one can measure the happiness that comes from 
little deeds of kindness and mercy. Henry Van Dyke 
sings the truth with great clearness : 



A CAUSE OF DOMESTIC SORROW. 89 



Only a little shriveled seed — 
It might be a flower or grass or weed ; 
Only a box of earth on the edge 
Of a narrow, dusty window-ledge ; 
Only a few scant summer showers ; 
Only a few clear, shining hours. 
That was all. Yet God could make 
Out of these, for a sick child's sake, 
A blossom-wonder as fair and sweet 
As ever broke at an angel's feet. 

Only a life of barren pain, 
Wet with sorrowful tears for rain ; 
Warmed sometimes by a wandering gleam 
Of joy that seemed but a happy dream. 
A life as common and brown and bare 
As the box of earth in the window there ; 
Yet it bore at last the precious bloom 
Of a perfect soul in a narrow room — 
Pure as the snowy leaves that fold 
Over the flower's heart of gold. 

A PROLIFIC CAUSE OF DOMESTIC SORROW. 

A Washington bird-merchant tells a suggestive 
story to illustrate the wavering course of young love's 
fitful fever. Something over a year ago a fashion- 
able young diplomat, wearing a trim little white top- 
coat over his dress-suit, came rushing into the store 
one night and asked to see the canaries. "Iweesh 
you would be so verra kind to show me ze canary — ze 
verra fines' you haf." A number of the little wooden 
cages were set out before him, and he looked at bird 
after bird, but did not seem to find just what he 
wanted. "I vill tell you why I want ze canary," he 



90 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



said at length. " I haf met a verra lofly young lady. 
She ees beautiful. She ees verra fine. I vill gif her 
ze canary — ze verra fines' you haf. How much ees 
zat canary?" "The price of that canary," said the 
merchant, " is five dollars. " " Oh, zat ees not enough ; 
I want ze verra fines' canary you haf." The dealer 
went again to the shelf where he kept his stock of 
yellow songsters and brought out a bird, the price of 
which on ordinary occasions was the same as that of 
the rest. He would have been glad any time to get a 
five-dollar bill for him. "There," he said, "is an 
exceptionally good singer. That is a trained bird. 
The price is fifteen dollars." "Oh, zat ees ze bird! 
Now ze cage." He bought a ten-dollar cage, and, 
leaving directions where the bird and the cage were 
to be sent, rushed out as fast as he came, evidently 
thoroughly satisfied with his purchase. A few days 
ago the same young man came into the store and again 
asked for a canary. The dealer's eye snapped. He 
saw another chance to sell a fifteen-dollar bird in a 
ten-dollar cage. He briskly set out the finest canaries 
he had, and gave stiff prices on them ; but the diplo- 
mat did not warm up at all. He shrugged his shoul- 
ders and kept saying : " Too much ! Too much ! " 
Finally he threw up his hands and expostulated : " Ze 
price ees too high. Haf you a cheaper bird? Zis 
canary ees not for a beautiful young lady. I am mar- 
ried now, and a three-dollar bird will do." Perhaps 
there is something suggestive in that as to the possi- 
ble cause of domestic sorrow in many families. The 
same spirit that was manifested before marriage, 



GOLD IN A HONEY-TREE. 



91 



which, seeks to give the best to the loved ones, might 
retain the delight of companionship which was real- 
ized then. 

FINDING GOD THROUGH MAN. 

James Russell Lowell, speaking of what the poet 
ought to be in the future, gives a description that 
could with little change apply for what every Chris- 
tian ought to be ; for surely every disciple of Jesus 
should be one 

Who feels that God and heaven's great deeps are nearer 

Him to whose heart his fellow man is nigh, 
Who doth not hold his soul's own freedom dearer 

Than that of all his brethren low or high ; 
Who to the right can feel himself the truer 

For being gently patient with the wrong, 
Who sees a brother in the evil-doer, 

And finds in Love the heart' s-blood of his song. 



GOLD IN A HONEY-TREE. 

Some boys in the Tennessee mountains discovered 
a bee-tree. The bees had selected a big hollow limb 
of an oak-tree for their hive. The boys set to work 
and cut down the tree, tho it was a task of many 
hours. They were, however, well repaid, for after 
they had filled themselves with the honey and had 
taken out several buckets of the delicious food they 
saw some shining object still farther down in the tree, 
which they found to be a pot with $2,000 in gold in 
it. It is supposed that the money was hidden there 
during the Civil War. There is always gold in sweet- 



92 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



ness. The sweet spirit that distils honey and not vine- 
gar out of all the common flowers of daily life is sure 
to treasure up the gold which can never perish. 

MAN'S COMMON INHERITANCE, 

He has lived narrowly indeed who has not learned 
that in the great important things wealth and position 
make little or no difference among men. Men who 
have lived widely have found what Wordsworth writes 
to be true : 

Love had he found in huts where poor men lie ; 

His daily teachers had been woods and rills, 
The silence that is in the starry sky, 

The sheep that roam among the lonely hills. 

THE PROTECTION OF DUTY. 

In China carrier-pigeons are protected from birds 
of prey by an ingenious little apparatus consisting of 
thin bamboo tubes fastened to the birds' bodies with 
threads passed beneath the wings. As the pigeon flies 
along, the action of the air passing through the tubes 
produces a shrill whistling sound, which keeps birds 
of prey at a respectful distance. People who go 
straight ahead and do their duty are armed and pro- 
tected by the divine promise. A man at his duty 
may be sure that G-od will take care of him, and the 
birds of prey will not be allowed to accomplish his 
overthrow. 



BEWARE OF LITTLE SINS. 93 



A CHARMING DEVIL. 

Paul says that Satan himself is sometimes trans- 
formed into an angel of light ; and indeed he is never 
so dangerous as when he thus makes himself attract- 
ive. Shakespeare had the same thing in mind when 
he said, in the second act of " Othello " : 

When devils will their blackest sins put on, 
They do suggest at first with heavenly shows. 

BEWARE OF LITTLE SINS. 

A naturalist recently said to a newspaper man: 
"Here's a hatching of eggs that you wouldn't care to 
invest in." In the glass-covered box at which they 
were looking were eighteen or twenty little snakes 
with triangular heads and gray-tinted bodies marked 
with black. Each was about as long and large around 
as a lead pencil, and they lay about in all sorts of 
curves and writhings among a lot of what looked like 
the broken shells of pigeon's eggs. "They are young 
rattlesnakes," continued the naturalist. "Now ob- 
serve how these little fellows, the oldest not twenty- 
four hours in age, show every trait of the parents," 
The naturalist lifted the glass cover slightly from the 
box and pushed the end of a long feather among the 
snakes. At once the nearer ones coiled precisely as 
a grown rattlesnake would have done, and each as the 
feather was pushed within striking distance darted 
viciously at it with jaws widely open, showing the 
sharp, tiny fangs. One of the snakes, so recently 



94 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



emerged from the egg that part of the shell adhered 
to him, coiled and struck as fiercely as the others. 
" They are born with all their power of mischief, and 
the knowledge of how to use it, complete," the natu- 
ralist went on to say. " The bite of one of these baby 
snakes would poison you the same as the bite of an 
adult snake would. The difference would be in the 
amount of poison injected." Sin is like that. This 
makes the tragedy of little sins. The deadly poison 
of sin is in them all ; and tho the deed seem insig- 
nificant, if there is in it the spirit of rebellion against 
God, or refusal to do his will, it will poison the 
whole nature. 

THE BLESSINGS OF UNSELFISHNESS. 

The reflex blessing which comes back upon the ear- 
nest soul from deeds unselfishly wrought for the good 
of others is never more clearly or beautifully stated 
than by Whittier : 

Yet who, thus looking backward o'er his years, 
Feels not his eyelids wet with grateful tears 

If he hath been 
Permitted, weak and sinful as he was, 
To cheer and aid in some ennobling cause 

His fellow men ; 

If he hath hidden the outcast, or let in 
A ray of sunshine in the cell of sin j 

If he hath lent 
Strength to the weak, or in his hour of need, 
Over the suffering, mindless of his creed 

Or home, hath bent ; 



MISSIONARIES AND BEAVER-DAMS. 95 



He hath not lived in vain, and while he gives 
The praise to Him in whom he moves and lives, 

With thankful heart 
He gazes backward, and with hope before, 
Knowing that from his works he nevermore 

Can thenceforth part. 

MISSIONARIES AND BEAVER-DAMS. 

In Montana the cattlemen are great friends of the 
beaver.- Any intelligent cattleman in Montana would 
give the best steer in his herd to save the life of a 
beaver — because the beaver is a dam-builder. Water 
is a constant necessity on the cattle -trails, in the dry 
climate of Montana especially, where the streams and 
water-holes are few and far between. There were 
more beavers in Montana, and there are yet, perhaps, 
than anywhere else in the United States. By build- 
ing their dams wherever they may, they cause the 
water-supply to be hoarded as it can be in no other 
way. And so it happens that while any other game 
or fur-bearing animal may be exterminated without a 
dissenting voice from them, the beaver is assured of 
the friendship and protection of the ranchmen. In 
the higher sense the influence of a Christian church in 
a community is similar to that of the work of a 
beaver. It conserves the good influences, the noble 
impulses, and the highest longings of the community 
in its thought toward God. I knew an old farmer in 
Southern Oregon who was not a Christian, and claimed 
to be an infidel, who paid a large sum every year to 
keep up preaching in the community, because he said 



96 POETRY AND MORALS. 

it was cheaper than to hire more men to protect his 
stock and property. Every church is a reservoir of 
the Water of Life. 



TRUE CULTURE. 

No one has written more suggestively of the breadth 
of true culture and the uselessness of artificial culture 
than Emerson in this brief little poem : 

Can rules or tutors educate 
The semigod whom we awake? 
He must be musical, 
Tremulous, impressional, 
Alive to gentle influence 
Of landscape and of sky, 
And tender to the spirit touch 
Of man's or maiden's eye : 
But, to his native center fast, 
Shall into Future fuse the Past, 

And the world's flowing fates in his own mold recast. 

FINDING THE LOST. 

Mr. Bertrand and his son, living near Hull, in the 
Province of Quebec, went out fishing on some large 
log-booms in the river. After some time the boy fell 
asleep on the logs. He dreamed that his father was 
drowning. He woke up and found out that his father 
had, in fact, disappeared. In despair he ran home to 
tell his mother the awful news. He also told the 
people on the road that his father was drowned. 
Mrs. Bertrand was almost frenzied, and soon crowds 



SMILES AND FROWNS. 



97 



of men gathered to go in search of the body. But 
the father was not drowned. He had walked ashore 
on the logs. When he returned, not finding his son 
where he had left him, he conjectured that he was 
drowned. After calling the boy repeatedly, he started 
home. When near Hull, he met a party, headed by 
his crying son, and carrying grappling-irons, lanterns, 
and ropes, to search for his body. The joy was in- 
tense when the two met. There are many really lost 
ones in a spiritual way, and the joy in family rela- 
tions when they are brought back to home and spiri- 
tual reunion is often the gladdest joy one ever wit- 
nesses. 

SMILES AND FROWNS. 

Many of us would like to do what some one has 
suggested in these four little verses, but the only way 
to realize it is to transform the heart which is back of 
the smile or the frown : 

If I knew the box where the smiles are kept, 

No matter how large the key 
Or strong the bolt, I would try so hard 

'Twould open, I know, for me. 

Then over the land and sea broadcast 

I'd scatter the smiles to play, 
That the children's faces might hold them fast 

For many and many a day. 

If I knew a box that was large enough 

To hold all the frowns I meet, 
I would try to gather them, every one, 

From nursery, school, and street. 

7 



98 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Then, folding and holding, I'd pack them in 

And turn the monster key ; 
I'd hire a giant to drop the box 

To the depths of the deep, deep sea. 

A FOG-DISPELLER. 

A recent invention is a fog-dispeller. The appa- 
ratus consists of a horizontal outlook-pipe, eight feet 
in length and eight inches in diameter. At the 
mouth of the tube is a wide flange ; the rear end is 
covered with a thick disk of glass. About two feet 
from the rear end a pipe enters the tube from below, 
at an obtuse angle with the forward section. This 
connection is made to a sort of turn-table, which per- 
mits the outlook tube to be pointed in any desired 
direction, up or down, from one side to the other. 
The pipe below connects with a blower down in the 
vessel. When the dispeller is in use, the blower 
sends a powerful stream of air up through the pipe 
into the tube, and the current hurtles into the fog, 
boring a hole through it, as it were. The action of 
the suspended moisture is twofold. The fog rolls 
back in every direction, the high pressure of the glass 
produces a cooling influence, the moisture in suspen- 
sion condenses and falls in rain. A great cone of 
clear atmosphere, with its apex at the mouth of the 
tube, results. The eye of the pilot is at the glass at 
the rear of the tube, and he gazes into the bowels of 
the fog. With its aid a pilot can readily pick up his 
buoys in a fog and keep an eye out for vessels ahead. 
With a powerful blower the inventor hopes to make 



FREEDOM OF THE SOUL. 



99 



the fog-dispeller useful at a thousand feet. Every 
Christian ought to be a fog-dispeller. The earnest- 
ness of his purpose, the sure reliance of his faith in 
God, and the hopefulness of his soul born of fellow- 
ship with Christ, ought to surround him with such an 
atmosphere of good cheer and courage that the foggi- 
est day of human trial would be illumined at his ap- 
proach. 

FREEDOM OF THE SOUL. 

Circumstances may oftentimes confine the opera- 
tions of our bodies within very narrow limits, and we 
may frequently be constrained to say with Paul, in 
apology, " Eemember my bonds " ; but no Roman em- 
peror had the power to chain or imprison Paul's soul, 
and Madame Guyon found the same power, to fly be- 
yond all prison walls, which belongs to every sincere 
Christian. 

My cage confines me round, 

Abroad I can not fly ; 
But tho my wing is closely bound, 

My heart's at liberty. 
My prison walls can not control 
The flight, the freedom, of the soul. 

Oh ! it is good to soar 

These bolts and bars above, 
To Thee whose purpose I adore, 

Whose providence I love : 
And in thy mighty will to find 
The joy, the freedom, of the mind. 



Lite. 



100 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



MOUNTAIN-DWELLERS. 

The splendid physical condition of the regiments 
recruited in the Bocky-Mountain region, and from 
the plains lying at their base, is a frequent subject of 
remark among the Western papers. The dwellers in 
these regions are from the same stock as their East- 
ern fellow countrymen. Many of them, indeed, are 
natives of the East. But the magnificent climate of 
the mountains and the simple open-air life of the in- 
habitants does its work even for those born elsewhere. 
In the medical examination these men made a better 
record than any other volunteers in the United States. 
Fresh from the mountain regions of Montana, where 
in the mines they have exercised and developed every 
muscle, the mountain troops are of really herculean 
size. To produce great manhood and womanhood, 
you must have a wide horizon, a pure atmosphere, 
and abundant room to turn around, and breathe, and 
be free. The greatest spiritual manhood can never 
be developed in a worldly atmosphere. The discon- 
tent and peevishness which sometimes end in despair 
and suicide among the most successful people, in 
purely worldly circles, arise from the fact that the 
mental and moral atmosphere they breathe is too 
smotheringly close to allow the heart and soul to have 
a fair chance to expand. There are mountains of spir- 
itual height on which those roam who give themselves 
up to high things. It is glorious to live on the high- 
lands of the soul. The air is not only pure there, 



PERSEVERANCE AND CHEERFULNESS. 101 



but God feeds these mountain-climbers on honey hid- 
den among the lofty rocks. 

AT OUR BEST. 

One of Dickens's characters begs his friend, when 
he is going away, that he will always remember him 
when he is at his best. Humanity is never at its best 
except when breathing the atmosphere of sympathy 
and love. This is peculiarly true of the home life. 
Clara W. Bronson in a little poem brings it out very 
clearly as to the woman's side of the home: 

Have you ever noticed the change it makes 
In a woman's face 

And her heart and her life, that were cold and dull 

And slightly inclined to commonplace, 

When Love shines on them? How there breaks 

Over her nature a wave of gold, 

Bringing out beauty unknown before, 

Mellowing, widening more and more, 

Lifting her up till her eyes behold 

Ever new blooms for her hands to cull, 

So she and her life grow beautiful? 

Oh, there's never a woman, east or west, 

But must live in Love's sunshine to live her best ! 

PERSEVERANCE AND CHEERFULNESS. 

The snake-bird is an interesting inhabitant of the 
cypress swamps of the south. It is very watchful 
and cautious, and when at rest — which the bird never 
is except on the branch of a tree that overhangs 
the water — it always stands erect, with wings spread 



102 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



out, and jerks its long neck nervously backward and 
forward, while its keen, bright eyes glance in every 
direction, ready to detect the slightest sign of danger. 
Alarmed, down the bird will drop into the water so 
noiselessly and deftly that no splash succeeds the 
plunge, and scarcely a ripple marks the spot of its 
disappearance. For a minute the bird is gone, and 
then its head will be seen coming slowly and warily 
out of the water, scarcely a span away from the spot 
where it went down. If the glance it casts around 
in its quick way satisfies it that the danger is past, its 
long neck appears upon the water and the bird swims 
toward the shore. The movements of the slender 
neck in the water as the bird swims, no other part of 
its body being visible, so closely resemble the action 
of a snake swimming that a stranger to the cypress 
swamps would surely fancy that it was indeed a snake 
making for a landing. This is why this curious deni- 
zen of the cypress solitudes is called the snake-bird. 
If one of these birds has been shot at and wounded 
as it sits upon the bough, it will make its noiseless 
dive into the pool, and, altho the wound may not 
have been in itself fatal, the bird will never volunta- 
rily appear above the water again. It will go to the 
bottom and clutch the weeds there with its bill and 
feet and deliberately drown itself. Some people are 
that way about the discouragements of life. When 
wounded or hurt, instead of rallying their courage 
again, and going forth to overcome difficulties, they 
give up in despair. Pluck and perseverance and good 
cheer are necessary to great achievements. 



FRUITS OF CONVERSION. 10S 



CHRIST'S FELLOWSHIP. 

Uhland, the German lyric poet, has written very 
beautifully of the comfort of knowing Christ in the 
fellowship of suffering and sympathy as a prelude to 
fellowship with him in heaven forever : 

There is a land where beauty can not fade, 

Nor sorrow dim the eye ; 
Where true love shall not droop nor be dismayed, 

And none shall ever die ! 

Where is that land, oh, where? 

For I would hasten there ! 

Tell me, I fain would go, 

Friend, thou must trust in Him who trod before 

The desolate paths of life ; 
Must bear in meekness as he meekly bore, 

Sorrow, and pain, and strife ! 

Think how the Son of God 

These thorny paths hath trod ; 

Think how he longed to go, 

Yet tarried out for thee the appointed wo ; 
Think of his weariness in places dim, 
When no man comforted or cared for him ! 

Think of the bloodlike sweat 

With which his brow was wet, 
Yet how he prayed, unaided and alone, 
In that great agony, "Thy will be done ! " 

Friend, do not thou despair ; 
Christ from his heaven of heavens will hear thy prayer. 

FRUITS OF COrWERSION. 

In the case of the jailer at Philippi one sees very 
clearly the fruits of a genuine conversion in the soul 



104 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



working out in the life and conduct. He was entirely- 
indifferent to the sufferings of Paul and Silas until 
after the marvelous event that brought him face to 
face with his own conscience, and suddenly brought 
him to faith in Christ. Immediately his whole thought 
toward his prisoners changed. He became solicitous 
for their welfare. Their hunger is now a matter 
of importance to him, and he can not do enough 
for these men of God who have brought him the 
good news of salvation. Like fruits are certain to 
follow every sincere conversion to Christ. A re- 
ligion that does Dot get into the habits of daily 
life in our treatment of our fellow men is not deep 
enough to take account of. 

THE GROWTH OF CHARACTER, 

Dr. Gannett, meditating on Christ's words, "Con- 
sider the lilies, how they grow," sings beautifully of 
the growth of Christlike character among men : 

O Toiler of the lily, 

Thy touch is in the man ! 
No leaf that dawns to petal 

But hints the angel-plan. 
The flower-horizon opens ! 

The blossom vaster shows ! 
We hear Thy wide world's echo, — 

"See how the lily grows." 

Shy yearnings of the savage. 

Unfolding thought by thought 
To holy lives are lifted, 

To visions fair are wrought ; 



LI HUNG CHANG AND THE BIBLE. 105 



The races rise and cluster, 

Transfigurations fall, 
Man's chaos blooms to beauty, 

Thy purpose crowning all ! 

LI HUNG CHANG AND THE BIBLE. 

Dr. Coltman, a medical missionary who is the phy- 
sician to Li Hung Chang, came upon the celebrated 
Chinaman one day when he was deeply interested in 
reading the Bible. He raised his eyes and gazed at 
Dr. Coltman with a piercing look and said : " Dr. Colt- 
man, do you believe this book? " The answer was : 
" Your Excellency, if I did not believe it, I should 
not have the honor of being your physician. I be- 
lieve it with my whole heart." "Are you sure that 
this is not all hearsa.v and "uman talk? " he asked 
again. "Quite sure." "Row do you know it? " he 
went on. " By a sign that the book itself mentions. 
Is it not written that a bad tree can bring forth no 
good fruit, and a good tree no bad fruit? Your Ex- 
cellency has already admitted that the condition of 
the people in Western lands is far better than in the 
Orient ; and I can assure you that the prosperity and 
happiness of the various nations that you have re- 
cently visited correspond exactly to the degree in 
which they follow the precepts of this book. Would 
God your Excellency believed it too." Here the 
viceroy was interrupted by important news ; but when 
his servant took his Bible from his hands to carry it 
to his bookcase, he said; "Don't put it in the book- 
case ; lay it on the table in my bedroom. I want to 



106 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



look at it again. " There is that about the Bible which 
appeals to the vein of simplicity and straightforward- 
ness which runs through all great natures. 

WICKED EXCUSES. 

The best thing any man can do when he has done 
wrong is frankly to confess it, and in humble repent- 
ance ask for forgiveness. The excuses for sin are oft- 
times blacker sins than the original wrongdoing. 
Shakespeare well expresses this in these lines from 
the fourth act of " King John " : 

Oftentimes excusing of a fault 
Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse, 
As patches set upon a little breach 
Discredit more in hiding of the fault 
Than did the fault before it was so patched. 

THE POWER OF THE BIBLE. 

Paul uses a very graphic illustration of the pene- 
trating force of the Word of God when in his letter to 
the Hebrews he says : " For the Word of God is living, 
and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, 
and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, 
of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the 
thoughts and intents of the heart." The Bible has 
this power wherever men read it, in all climes and 
under all types of heathen life. It has the power to 
uncover the human heart to itself, and whenever the 
heart beholds its own sinfulness it instinctively cries 
out for God. 



THE GIVE AND TAKE OF HOME LIFE. 107 



THE CHRISTIAN'S GUIDE-BOOK. 

Alice Cary sings of the traveler who put the Book 
of books into the hand of one perplexed about the 
path : 

And when the old man saw where lay 
The traveler's choice, he said, "I pray, 
Take this to help you on the way " ; 

And gave to him a lovely Book, 
Wherein for guidance he must look, 
He told him, if the paths should crook. 

And so through labyrinths of shade, 
When terror pressed, or doubt dismayed, 
He walked in armor all arrayed. 

So, over pitfalls traveled he, 
And passed the gates of harlotry, 
Safe with his heavenly company. 

And when the road did low descend 
He found a good inn, and a friend, 
And made a comfortable end. 

THE GIVE AND TAKE OF HOME LIFE. 

Cooperation in this world is always bought at the 
price of compromise. If any one is determined to 
have his own way in everything, then he ought to 
live the life of a hermit ; for whenever he comes into 
partnership with somebody else, he has to give up 
having his way half the time. Robinson Crusoe was 
monarch of all he surveyed so long as he was alone 
on his island, but the instant he saw Friday's track 



108 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



in the sand all his circle of privileges was divided by 
two . The home is a little circle, made little purposely 
so that the people in it may know each other well and 
help each other much. The cooperation in the home 
can not be happy and useful unless the spirit of the 
home life is full of mutual forbearance. 

FIRESIDE "WORSHIP* 

Nothing so exalts family life as simple, unaffected, 
genuine family worship. It brings all the dignity 
and glory of the skies into the midst of the prosaic 
duties of daily living. James T. Fields, in his beau- 
tiful fireside hymn, suggests the inspiration and up- 
lift of such worship : 

Hither, bright angels, wing your flight, 
And stay your gentle presence here ; 

Watch round, and shield us through the night, 
That every shade may disappear. 

How sweet, when Nature claims repose, 

And darkness floats in silence nigh, 
To welcome in, at daylight's close, 

Those radiant troops that gem the sky ! 

To feel that unseen hand we clasp 

While feet unheard are gathering round, 

To know that we in faith may grasp 
Celestial guards from heavenly ground ! 

Oh, ever thus, with silent prayer 

For those we love may night begin,— 

Reposing safe, released from care, 
Till morning leads the sunlight in. 



BORROWING TROUBLE. 



109 



THE AVERAGE MAN. 

It lias come to light, in the examination of the ships 
of Cervera's fleet which were wrecked by the Ameri- 
can ships off the coast of Santiago, that the work was 
accomplished, not by the large twelve- and thirteen- 
ineh guns, but by the smaller guns. Of the largest 
guns, only two shots hit the mark ; but of the five- 
inch guns, twenty went home and did fearful work. 
The cruiser Brooklyn, which was the only ship in the 
action using five-inch guns, fought every one of Cer- 
vera's ships in turn, and the havoc caused by her 
smaller rapid-fire guns was one of the features of the 
great battle It is like that in the battle of life. It 
is only now and then that the great geniuses with 
their ten talents are able to land a shot, but there is 
always work for the average man, and there is always 
opportunity for the average battery of force, in com- 
mon-sense duty- doing, to accomplish faithful service. 
Many men are failing utterly in life because they are 
waiting to land a thirteen-inch shell. One feels like 
taking such a man by the shoulders and shaking him 
and saying: "For heaven's sake, man, get your five- 
inch guns to work before the opportunities of life are 
gone forever ! " 

BORROWING TROUBLE. 

Emerson brings to us from the French some strik- 
ing lines concerning the unnecessary pain and sorrow 



110 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



which many people experience through their foolish 
and unhappy faculty for borrowing trouble : 

Some of your hurts you have cured, 
And the sharpest you still have survived, 

But what torments of grief you endured 
From evils which never arrived ! 

CHRIST MORE THAN A FRIEND. 

A proposition has been made by a colored convict in 
the State prison at Jackson, Mich., which, while it 
recalls the story of Damon and Pythias, serves also to 
illustrate the manner in which a patriotic fervor per- 
meates every stratum of American life. This con- 
vict's name is Williams. His ten years' term of im- 
prisonment expires next January. Between him and 
a white fellow convict named Cheesebro a warm friend- 
ship has grown up. Cheesebro is serving a life sen- 
tence, but he yearned for an opportunity to enlist in 
the fight against Spain, and his black friend was eager 
for him to have the opportunity. So Williams wrote 
a letter to Governor Pingree, begging that Cheesebro 
might be given a soldier's opportunity, giving the 
pledge of both that when the war was over Cheese- 
bro would return to serve out his sentence. If he did 
not return, Williams agreed to serve the life sentence 
instead, unless the soldier was killed in combat. But 
how much greater was Christ's sacrifice for us than 
that. These men are both under the condemnation of 
the law ; but Christ of his own will came down from 
heaven, emptying himself of all its glory, being born 



CONFOUNDED COUNSELS. Ill 



under the law with us, and gave his own freedom 
and life as a ransom for us. Christ said that greater 
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his 
life for his friends ; and Paul well reasons that G-od 
commendeth his love for us in that while we were yet 
sinners Christ died for us. 

THE DELUSION OF TO-MORROW* 

Longfellow translates from the Spanish a little 
poem, entitled "To-Morrow," which forms a striking 
commentary on those words of Jesus, " Behold, I stand 
at the door and knock ! " 

Lord, what am I, that, with unceasing care, 
Thou didst seek after me, — that thou didst wait, 
Wet with unhealthy dews, before my gate, 
And pass the gloomy night of winter there? 
Oh, strange delusion ! — that I did not greet 
Thy blest approach, and oh, to Heaven how lost, 
If my ingratitude's unkindly frost 
Has chilled the bleeding wounds upon thy feet. 
How oft my guardian angel gently cried, 
"Soul, from thy casement look, and thou shalt see 
How he persists to knock and wait for thee ! " 
And, oh ! how often to that voice of sorrow, 
"To-morrow we will open," I replied, 
And when the morrow came I answered still, "To- 
morrow." 

CONFOUNDED COUNSELS. 

Searchlights, which play an important part in mod- 
ern warfare, have one use which the average lands- 
man would not think of mentioning if he were called 



112 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



upon to enumerate their various applications. While 
the searchlight's first and chief mission is to throw 
shafts of light, and to illuminate dark places, to aid in 
the discovery of traveling- ships, torpedo-boats, and 
blockade -runners, it is used extensively also as a means 
of communication by signals ; but in a night engage- 
ment it is specially employed to dazzle the eyes of 
the gunners on the opposing side. Bad marksmanship 
on the part of the Spaniards has often been given as 
the cause for their ineffectual shooting, while the real 
cause has not infrequently been the good work of those 
who operated the searchlights on the American ships. 
Those who have been compelled to face them say that 
there are few more potent blinders than the electric 
searchlight. The plans of the wicked often come to 
naught in the same way. God throws the searchlight 
on a man's conscience and confounds him with a new 
power with which he has no weapons to cope. Let 
no man dare go on in sin unless he can measure arms 
with God. Every man carries in his own bosom the 
possibilities of disaster when the searchlight of God's 
Spirit arouses conscience to action. 

A MAN OF GOD. 

If one can catch the spirit of Lucy Larcom's poem 
entitled "A Mountaineer's Prayer, " he will surely be- 
come, in the lofty Bible sense, "a man of God." 

Clothe me in the rose tints of Thy skies 

Upon morning summits laid ; 
Robe me in the purple and gold that flies 

Through Thy shuttles of light and shade ; 



COMMON WORK GLORIFIED. 113 



Let me rise and rejoice in Thy smile aright, 

As mountains and forests do ; 
Let me welcome Thy twilight and Thy night, 

And wait for Thy dawn anew ! 

Give me of the brook's faith, joyously sung 

Under clank of its icy chain ! 
Give me of the patience that hides among 

Thy hilltops in mist and rain ! 
Lift me up from the clod ; let me breathe Thy breath ; 

Thy beauty and strength give me ! 
Let me lose both the name and the meaning of death 

In the life that I share with Thee ! 

COMMON WORK GLORIFIED, 

A prominent young man in Cleveland, whose fam- 
ily moves in the best society circles, went home from 
Cornell to join a cavalry troop of that city and go to 
war. His parents are wealthy, but when a show of 
patriotism was called for, he was among the first to 
be heard from. At school and college he took a great 
interest in manual training, and learned blacksmith- 
ing. Now, what do you suppose he was set doing? 
Winning glory on the field of battle? Galloping over 
hills and through dales bearing despatches from one 
commander to another? No ! He was shoeing horses 
at Chickamauga ! And he was not complaining either. 
" Somebody must do this," he wrote home; "and if I 
can be most useful to my country in this way, why, 
I shall be satisfied. When I enlisted, it was for the 
purpose of doing my best to win glory for the Stars 
and Stripes in any way that might be assigned me. 
But there are many more pleasant things than work- 
E 8 V', 



114 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



ing over an anvil in this climate." All the great 
things of life are achieved in that spirit. Christ says 
that even a cup of cold water gains a glorious consid- 
eration in the eyes of God when it is given with a 
noble spirit. 

MEMORY AND CHEERFULNESS. 

Mary Devereux, in a recent poem, very beautifully 
portrays the power of memory to enrich life with good 
cheer from deeds that are past : 

As holds some lake with quiet breast 

The blue hills' brooding height, 
That lies against soft summer skies 

All filled with sunshine bright ; 
So holds the heart sweet memories 

Of happy days gone by, 
When youth and love walked hand-in-hand 

And hope could fate defy. 

As vibrant shakes the slender twig 

Some happy song-bird quits, 
So — trembling still — the heart-chords thrill 

When sweet remembrance flits, 
And brightly gilds the somber gray, 

As ends a long day spent, 
Ere darkness comes to steal the gold 

The parting sun has sent. 

THE DANGER OF WORLDLINESS. 

A recent magazine writer calls attention to the dele- 
terious effect of the electric light on trees. He finds 
that trees growing near an electric light soon lose 
their leaves on the side next the light and begin to 



THE CROAKERS. 



115 



die. He philosophizes that the reason is that they 
can not sleep with those big glaring electric eyes shi- 
ning in their faces all night. This gentleman also be- 
lieves that the electric lights are much to blame for 
human sight defects and nervousness, and, lastly, for 
insomnia. He reasons that we want darkness for 
rest, and that the electric lights make that impossible. 
The electric light suggests the glaring blaze of world- 
line ss in which many Christians live. A happy and 
abundant Christian life can not be carried on without 
Bible-reading, meditation, and prayer. The blazing 
worldliness in which many live seems to shut out the 
opportunities for these feeders of the soul. 

THE BIBLE IN THE HOME. 

Nathaniel Frothingham wrote a little poem to go 
with the gift of a Bible on a wedding-day, which beau- 
tifully sets forth the blessedness of sincere religion in 
nourishing wedded love : 

A better love than mine 

This holy volume gives ; 
It shows no shadow of decline, 

And when I die it lives. 

This book binds man and wife 

In closer love and fears ; 
And all the ties that bless our life 

It hallows and endears. 

THE CROAKERS. 

A cedar swamp where the night heron resorts in 
the spring to rear its young would be a paradise for 
croakers. The night herons take possession of a large 



116 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



cedar swamp and build their nests in the tree-tops. 
Each mother heron raises four young ones, and as soon 
as the little herons come out of the eggs they seek 
the topmost branches of the tree, where they cling 
with their toes and keep up a continual croaking. As 
each tree has a hungry brood in its top, the hubbub 
at this period of a heron's career is something that, 
once heard, can never be forgotten. Added to the 
babel of sound proceeding from the young herons is 
the shrill cry of the old birds, as if they were trying 
to quiet the young ones with promises of something 
to eat by and by. Some churches are like that : the 
croakers seem to have full sway. Instead of every 
one seeking to find what he can do to add to the 
church's power, every one seems clamoring to receive 
something for himself. You may depend upon it that 
croaking is usually born of selfishness and greed. 

THE BLINDING POWER OF SIN. 

In the " Merchant of Venice " Shakespeare sets forth 
in strong, virile lines the power of sin to blind the eyes 
of the soul : 

In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, 
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, 
Obscures the show of evil? In religion, 
What damned error, but some sober brow 
Will bless it, and approve it with a text, 
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CONFIDENCE. 



117 



SIN THE ASSASSIN OF CHEERFULNESS. 

General Kalli, a lively old Greek who at the age of 
ninety-seven years was in active service in the com- 
missariat department, a well-known man abont town 
in Athens, a skilled horseman, an inveterate dancer, 
recently shot himself, leaving a note with the words : 
" My God, I have sinned, sinned, sinned. I am tired 
of life." Sin and discouragement go together. The 
devil takes cheerfulness out of the life of those who 
yield to his seductions. 

THE CHRISTIAN'S CONFIDENCE. 

No one has ever sung a song of sweeter trust 
than has John G. Whittier in his poem entitled 
" Eevelation " : 

Oh, joy supreme ! I know the Voice, 

Like none beside on earth or sea ; 
Yea, more, soul of mine, rejoice ! 

By all that he requires of me 

I know what God himself must be. 

No picture to my aid I call, 

I shape no image in my prayer ; 
I only know in him is all 

Of light, life, beauty, everywhere, 

Eternal goodness here and there ! 

I know he is, and what he is 

Whose one great purpose is the good 

Of all. I rest my soul on his 
Immortal Love and Fatherhood ; 
And trust him as his children should. 



118 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



I fear no more. The clouded face 

Of Nature smiles ; through all her things 

Of time and space and sense I trace 
The moving of the Spirit's wings, 
And hear the song of hope she sings. 

TAMING LIONS, 

The noted German lion-tamer, Julius Seeth, re- 
cently acquired a valuable collection of lions in a 
curious way. Herr Seeth was at the court of King 
Menelik, in Abyssinia ; the king had heard, through 
his minister, of Seeth' s prowess, and wanted to see a 
proof of it. He had twenty-eight Abyssinian lions 
caught especially for him to train. Seeth began his 
task, and in a short time was able to bring them be- 
fore the Abyssinian monarch perfectly under control. 
Menelik was so amazed and delighted at the perform- 
ance that he immediately presented them all to Seeth. 
That is the way the Lord treated the Hebrews on their 
march into Canaan. He gave them all the land on 
which they had pressed their feet. He will treat us 
in the same way. All the lions we conquer by self- 
discipline, all the land we gain by conquest through 
self-denial, shall become our own, and we shall enjoy 
the possession of it in after years. 

THE "WINGED WORD. 

Wilhelm Muller illustrates with a graphic figure 
the grave danger of careless and hasty speaking, 
and how impossible it is for a man to bring back 



CHRIST'S PRESENCE. 



119 



words of folly or of wickedness after they have 
once been uttered : 

Has the word the lips once quitted, you'll o'ertake it never- 
more, 

Tho next moment your repentance scurry off with coach and 
four. 

AN APOLOGUE OF STANDING ARMIES. 

A distinguished European officer tells a story which 
in a very striking way illustrates the wicked folly of 
the great standing armaments which are such a bur- 
den for the world to carry to-day. There were three 
neighbors — Ivan, Sidor, and Peter — each of whom 
had a keeper to look after his farm. One day it oc- 
curred to Ivan that if his two neighbors leagued 
against him he would have but a poor chance. There- 
fore he hired another man, which led Sidor to believe 
he had some evil purpose, who thereupon secured two 
more men, and thought he could sleep in peace. Ivan 
was alarmed, and immediately increased his force to 
three in order for his security ; and Sidor and he kept 
on in this ruinous game of competition. Peter, mean- 
while, took note of the folly. " What an excellent 
way of creating evil when it does not exist ! " he said. 
"Better to live like a good housewife. Let evil come 
and I will defend myself. All the world will not be 
against me. Perhaps I shall have helpers. The devil 
is powerful, but God is good ! 99 

CHRIST'S PRESENCE. 

Charlotte Elliott sings beautifully of the great truth 
that if Christ dwell in our heart all will go well, all 



120 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



the sorrows and ills of life will be cured ; for he, be- 
ing master there, will do what is best for us : 

Let but my fainting heart be blest 
With thy sweet Spirit for its guest, 
My God, to thee I leave the rest : 
Thy will be done ! 

Kenew my will from day to day ; 
Blended with thine ; and take away 
All that now makes it hard to say, 
Thy will be done ! 

BACTERIA OF RUM. 

A new bacillus has just been discovered by a noted 
German scientist. It seems to have its particular 
home in rum. It ruins the rum, and the most inter- 
esting feature of the discovery is that this is the first 
bacillus found that can live in a fluid of seventy per 
cent, alcohol. It is considered one of the most dan- 
gerous of the bacilli. There are dangerous bacteria 
for men in all kinds of alcoholic drinks. No other 
sin that ravages humanity can compare in destructive 
force to the deadly worm of the still. It may fasci- 
nate and deceive for a while, but " at the last it biteth 
like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder." 

INVINCIBLE LOVE. 

Emerson sings strongly of the power of love to sur- 
mount all difficulties in accomplishing its object : 

Love on his errand bound to go 
Can swim the flood and wade through snow ; 
Where way is none,'twill creep and wind, 
And eat through Alps its home to find. 



THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN SONG. 121 



THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN SONG. 

Mr. Sankey relates the story of how Mr. Moody 
and himself once appeared in London before an au- 
dience of men and women made up of out-and-out 
haters of the Christian Church. Such only had been 
admitted. People who were churchgoers could not get 
into that meeting. Most of the men and women pres- 
ent were rough scoffers. No regular clergyman could 
have induced such people as they to reform, but they 
came to hear Moody and Sankey because they had 
never received such an invitation before. The idea 
of a religious meeting from which churchgoers were 
barred out had startled them. But having succeeded 
in getting them there, the problem arose how they 
should prevent them from going away more confirmed 
than ever in their wickedness. "We must interest 
them with the singing," said Moody. "We must 
have a hymn which will appeal to the hearts of them 
all, and what I want you to sing is ' My Mother's 
Prayer.' " Mr. Sankey began that song amid the 
noise of shuffling feet and whispered comments. But 
before one verse had been sung there fell over that 
audience a silence so perfect that he could almost hear 
the beating of his own heart and the ticking of the 
clock in the pauses between the lines. He sang all 
its seven verses with an enthusiasm such as he had 
never felt before. As the last note died away, Mr. 
Moody followed with a very tender and loving ad- 
dress. He carried the audience like a whirlwind, and 



122 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



when lie ceased, five hundred of those rude, irrever- 
ent unbelievers rose up from their seats beside their 
boon companions and their accomplices in iniquity 
and asked for prayers. The song had found the way 
to the one tender spot in their hearts. Every one who 
has the gift of sweet song should dedicate it to Christ. 

THANKSGIVING FOR SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS. 

We have in our knowledge of Christ as a divine 
Savior great reason for thanksgiving to God. Dur- 
ing and since the war against Spain we have caught 
some glimpses of the spiritual poverty existing under 
an oppressive and bigoted government. We should 
thank God for an open Bible ; for the chance not only 
to read it, but to preach it everywhere. We have also 
a new cause for thanksgiving that through war mil- 
lions of heathen people have had taken from about 
them the worse than Chinese wall of bigotry and 
superstition that shut out from them the light of the 
Gospel of Christ. We should thank God for the privi- 
lege of carrying the comforts of divine grace to these 
benighted souls. With Cuba and Porto Rico, Guam 
and the Philippines in our mind, we should sing with 
a new spirit : 

Waft, waft, ye winds, his story, 

And you, ye waters, roll, 
Till, like a sea of glory, 

It spreads from pole to pole : 
Till o'er our ransomed nature 

The Lamb for sinners slain, 
Redeemer, King, Creator, 

In bliss returns to reign. 



THE ELIXIR OF LIFE. 



123 



THE EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE. 

"Let the redeemed of the Lord say so," is a good 
motto for Thanksgiving-time. It is not enongh to 
feel thankful in our hearts, we should bear open tes- 
timony to God's goodness to us by the praise of our 
lips. We know that God likes to have thanksgiving 
expressed. The flowers express their thanksgiving by 
their perfume. The birds express their gratitude by 
their cheerful songs. And we should make known 
the pleasure which we feel at God's goodness not only 
by voicing it in prayer and praise, but by talking to 
each other about it. 

THE ELIXIR OF LIFE. 

George Herbert illustrates in his poem, "The 
Elixir," the truth of the Scripture declaration that 
while the letter killeth, the spirit maketh alive. The 
presence of Christ in our hearts, the feeling that we 
are doing what we do for him, makes all our work 
higher and nobler : 

Teach me, my God and King, 

In all things thee to see, 
And what I do in anything, 

To do it as for thee : 

All may of thee partake : 

Nothing can be so mean, 
Which with this tincture, for thy sake, 

Will not grow bright and clean. 



124 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



A servant with this clause 

Makes drudgery divine : 
Who sweeps a room as for thy laws 

Makes that and th' action fine. 

This is the famous stone 

That turneth all to gold ; 
For that which God doth touch and own 

Can not for less be told. 

SUPERIOR TO TRIFLES. 

A newspaper man watched Senator Depew, of New 
York, as he left his office in the Grand Central Sta- 
tion and started across the street to catch a car. The 
north side of the street was torn up, and an Italian 
laborer who was pushing a wheelbarrow shoved it 
carelessly against Mr. Depew' s foot. The Senator 
calmly ignored the man's carelessness and continued 
to pick his way across the muddy pavement. The car 
he signaled stopped in an unusually uncomfortable 
place for him, and he was compelled to walk several 
steps over muddy cobblestones and finally to step over 
a grimy rope. However, New York's genial Senator 
raised his cane and bowed to the negligent motorman 
with the grace of a Chesterfield, stepped in through the 
front door of the car, and seated himself with unruffled 
composure. Largeness of mind and character come 
out in these little things just as surely as in matters 
of larger scope. Fill the soul with great purposes 
and you can afford to be superior to trifles. That was 
a great thing which Paul said about himself, " When 
I became a man, I put away childish things." 



HERO-WORSHIP IN CHRISTIANITY. 125 



THE GLORY OF UNSELFISHNESS. 

Theodore Monod, during a series of revival meet- 
ings in England, wrote "The Altered Motto," which 
has gone round the world and deserves to be immor- 
tal, for it beautifully expresses the evolution of Chris- 
tianity in the human heart. Happy are those who 
can read or sing the last verse, rejoicing that it re- 
flects their own condition : 

Oil, the bitter shame and sorrow, 

That a time could ever be 
When I let the Savior's pity 
Plead in vain, and proudly answer, 

"All of self, and none of thee." 

Yet he found me. I beheld him 

Bleeding on the accursed tree, 
Heard him pray, "Forgive them, Father !" 
And my wistful heart said faintly, 

" Some of self, and some of thee." 

Day by day his tender mercy, 

Healing, helping, full and free, 
Sweet and strong, and ah ! so patient, 
Brought me lower, while I whispered, 

" Less of self, and more of thee ! " 

Higher than the highest heavens, 

Deeper than the deepest sea, 
Lord, thy love at last has conquered ; 
Grant me now my soul's desire, — 

"None of self, and all of thee ! " 

HERO-WORSHIP IN CHRISTIANITY. 

Gen. Robert E. Lee was once riding through the 
country, some time after the war, on Traveler, his pet 



126 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



horse, that had carried him on many a battlefield, 
when he met a rusty, weather-beaten mountaineer 
lounging drowsily upon the road in his rickety cart. 
General Lee's cordial "Good morning! " aroused the 
old Confederate instantly. " Whoa ! " he called out 
to his old nag. " Ain't that General Lee?" he in- 
quired, as he climbed down and caught Traveler by 
the bridle. "Yes, sir," said General Lee wonder- 
ingly. "Well, then," said the old fellow, in a glow 
of excitement, " I want you to do me a favor. " " I 
will, with pleasure, if I can," was the response. " All 
right, you just get down off Traveler." General Lee 
did so, and to his amazement his horse was led away 
and tied in the bushes, while * he stood alone in the 
dusty road in great perplexity. "Now," said the ex- 
cited veteran, " I am one of your old soldiers, General 
Lee. I was with you all the way from Mechanics- 
ville to Appomattox. I was thar every time. And 
I just want you to let me give three rousing cheers 
for ' Marse Eobert ! ' " General Lee's head dropped 
in most painful embarrassment as the first yell went 
sounding along the mountain-side. The next yell was 
choked with sobs, as the old soldier dropped on his 
knees in the dust, hugging General Lee's legs; and 
the third died away in tears. Give us such loyalty 
for Jesus Christ and nothing can stand against him. 
Other generals may come and go ; they grow old and 
die, and their swords hang up in the museums and 
gather with rust ; but he is alive f orevermore. If we 
give him all our heart's devotion, he will lead us ever- 
more to victory. 



POWER OF BROTHERHOOD. 



127 



POWER OF MUSIC. 

Wordsworth, in his poem "Canute," suggests the 
power of music to attract, soften, and ennoble even 
the rude and savage soul : 

A pleasant music floats along the mere, 

From monks in Ely chanting service high, 

While at Canute the king is bowing by : 

"My oarsmen," quoth the mighty king, "draw near, 

That we the sweet song of the monk may hear ! " 

He listened (all past conquests and all schemes 

Of future vanishing like empty dreams), 

Heart-touched, and happily not without a tear. 

The royal minstrel, ere the choir is still, 

While his free barge skims the smooth flood along 

Gives to that rapture an accordant rime. 

O suffering earth ! be thankful ; sternest clime 

And rudest age are subject to the thrill 

Of heaven-descended piety and song. 

POWER OF BROTHERHOOD. 

Eobert Johnston, a negro minstrel who was con- 
verted to Christ in a mission-tent on Epsom Downs, 
at the great Derby horse-race, has had marvelous suc- 
cess in winning coal-miners to Christ. He goes right 
down into the mines and talks to the men hundreds 
of feet below the ground. Here is a description 
of one of these trips : He went down one day into a 
mine fifteen hundred feet below the surface. Dressed 
in collier fashion, with his safety-lamp and his old 
banjo, he trudged along the gloomy track, and great 
was his joy when at last he found himself face to face 



128 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



with a large number of hewers and fillers. He sang 
to the astonished men, accompanying himself on his 
banjo, and told the half -naked collier lads of the 
Christ he had found on the Epsom race-course. Tho 
well blackened with coal-dust on top of his original 
coating, and bathed in perspiration, he was greatly re- 
joiced to find that he had struck a shift containing the 
very men who the night before had dodged his per- 
sonal appeals in the open-air services, and had gone 
into the public house to drink instead. Here they 
were caught in a trap and could not run away from 
God' s word. He had tremendous influence over them, 
and many of them exclaimed: "We ne'er seed owt 
like this! Thou's bro't a noo kind o' religion to 
Denaby, when thou can coom deawn pit 'n' play an' 
sing, 'n' speak loike one o' oursen's. O'm bound to 
believe in aw' thou's said; its reet, 'n' O'm bound to 
believe it; 'n' God bless thee, lad." 

A LIVING REST, 

George Macdonald has a sweet song of that living 
rest which one may carry in his heart through days of 
most active struggle : 

There is a rest that deeper grows 

In midst of pain and strife ; 
A mighty, conscious, willed repose, 

The breath of deepest life. 
To have and hold the precious prize 

No need of jealous bars ; 
But windows open to the skies, 

And skill to read the stars. 



CHARACTERS WE A TING. 129 



CHARACTER-SWEATING. 

Ingenious criminals have discovered a way of sweat- 
ing a coin so that without altering its appearance they 
are able to rob it of a portion of its legal weight. 
Manifestly gold coins alone would appeal to the 
sweater, for silver would hardly pay for the trou- 
ble. It is most practised west of the Eocky Moun- 
tains, and the large twenty- dollar gold pieces are 
usually the victims of this swindle. The process of 
robbing a coin of a part of its metal is simple. The 
gold piece is merely immersed, or suspended, in aqua 
vegia, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, which 
attacks the metal at once. So powerful is this solu- 
tion that in a few minutes it will absorb from one to 
two dollars' worth of gold from a twenty-dollar gold 
piece. The coin is then washed in water and polished 
with whiting, as otherwise its surface would betray 
the ordeal through which it had passed, showing 
" pockmarks " in great variety. Wicked and impure 
associations have the same effect on character that 
these acids have on gold. Sometimes a man's moral 
nature is greatly robbed before he himself is conscious 
of it. Many men and women are thus deteriorating 
and losing in real force and character while to the 
outer world they appear as strong as ever. And when 
they go down, some sudden test finding them want- 
ing, people are astonished. The fact is, the devil has 
been sweating them a long time, and when an emer- 
gency comes they are "weighed in the balance and 
found wanting." 
9 



130 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



THE BRAHMAN'S TEST. 

Margaret Preston gives us the story of the Brahman 
who was led to listen earnestly to the story of Christ 
and whose heart was greatly attracted by the good 
tidings. Finally he determined to put his idol to a 
test. He reasoned that if he should treat the idol 
with disrespect, thrusting his knife into it, that 
Brahma would slay him, if indeed Brahma were God ; 
if he did not so act, he would know that Christ was 
God ; and so he determined to dare to know the truth 
even tho he died for it. With terror- smitten soul he 
came before the idol and cried : 

Oh, what if this be God indeed, 

And when he feels the smart 
My dagger deals, he from his throne 

In direst wrath shall start, 
And clutch me in his grasp and spill 

The life-blood from my heart ! 

But with the courage of a brave man he acted. 

Full in the idol's breast the blade 
Was plunged : there came no moan. 

The pundit dropped with stifling joy 
Upon the pavement stone, 

Sobbing, "My Brahma is a lie, — 
The Christ is God alone ! " 

RICH PAVEMENTS. 

It is not often that it is given to men, outside of 
the favored gentlemen who figure in the story of Alad- 
din and kindred productions of rich Oriental imagina- 



HARDENING THE HEART BLINDS THE EYES. 131 



tion, to travel daily on a road literally groaning with 
diamonds. Yet until a few years ago there was such a 
road in the Kimberley district in South Africa; and 
when a man walked over it, he walked over millions 
of dollars' worth of the precious stones. When the 
diamond market was in its glory, piles of dirt that 
had been carelessly mined were used for macadami- 
zing the roads around the city of Kimberley ; but when 
diamonds became more scarce, these roads were taken 
up and worked, and the value of over two hundred 
thousand dollars a year in precious stones was taken 
out of the streets for several years. But every Chris- 
tian looks forward to a mansion on a city street 
where the ordinary paving is gold, and where the 
walls and gates are of precious stones. No one will 
mine the streets there, or tear up the pavement to 
make money. Other values so much greater will fill 
the mind and heart that these signs of earthly glory 
will be things to walk on. 



HARDENING THE HEART BLINDS THE EYES. 

No one has written more clearly of that great fact, 
so often observed, that as the sinner's heart hardens 
his spiritual perception decreases, than Shakespeare 
in the third act of " Antony and Cleopatra " : 

When we in our viciousness grow hard — 
O misery on't ! The wise gods seal our eyes ; 
In our own filth drop our clear judgment ; make us 
Adorn our errors ; laugh at 's while we strut 
To our own confusion. 



132 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



THE GROWTH OF HUMAN RIGHTS. 

There has been recently printed, and for the first 
time, a story told by Napoleon Bonaparte, of how 
Cardinal Richelieu was once conversing with a noble- 
man in his private cabinet. During their conversa- 
tion a still more distinguished man entered, and when 
he took his leave, Richelieu, in compliment to him, 
attended him to his carriage, forgetting that he had 
left the other alone in his cabinet. On his return he 
rang a bell, and one of his confidential secretaries en- 
tered, to whom he whispered something. He then 
conversed with the other very freely, appeared to take 
an interest in his affairs, accompanied him to the door, 
shook hands, and took leave in the most friendly way, 
telling him that he might make his mind easy concern- 
ing the petition which he had made, as he had deter- 
mined to provide for him. The guest thus departed 
highly satisfied and full of gratitude. But as he was 
going out of the door he was arrested, not allowed to 
speak to any person, and conveyed in a coach to the 
Bastile, where he was kept in secret for ten years. 
At the expiration of this time the Cardinal sent for 
him and expressed his great regret at having been 
obliged to adopt the step he had taken, but that when 
he quitted the room he had left on the table a paper 
containing state secrets of vast importance, which he 
was afraid he might have perused in his absence. In 
our days of free press and free speech, such things, of 
course, would be impossible. Free speech and free 



BRAVE BOYHOOD. 



133 



press are no doubt often sinned against, but they help 
wonderfully the growth of the rights of the individual. 
Light is the best policeman and general publicity is 
the surest safeguard of the rights of the people. 

HEWING ROUGH STONE. 

Richard Trench suggests a reason for thanksgiv- 
ing for sorrows and trials at which many of us are 
likely to grumble. These, he would have us under- 
stand, are meant to be polishing and shaping influ- 
ences which are to take away the roughness that would 
otherwise unfit us for a place in the great spiritual 
temple. He has good backing in Paul for these two 
strong lines : 

When God afflicts thee, think he hews a rugged stone 
Which must be shaped or else aside as useless thrown. 

BRAVE BOYHOOD. 

A thirteen-year-old boy near Port Clinton, Pa., 
had a thrilling experience lately with an eagle on the 
mountain near his home, The boy, who is a good 
shot with a rifle, went out on the mountain for the 
purpose of practising at a target. While in the woods 
he was attacked by a large eagle. The bird attempted 
to alight on his head It partially succeeded in doing 
this, when the lad coolly turned on the bird and 
struck it on the neck with his rifle, and it flew to the 
top of a tree near by. He then raised his rifle to 
shoot, when it again attacked him, sinking its talons 



134 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



into the flesh of his body ; but the little fellow kept 
cool and again fought it off, and, raising his rifle, 
brought down the prize, sending a bullet through its 
head. The boy was alone at the time, but brought 
home his game. It measured forty-six inches from 
tip to tip of wing. A prouder boy never lived in the 
neighborhood. Every boy should fight against the 
birds of prey that seek to take away his reverence for 
God and his love for the simple worship he has been 
taught in his Christian home. God wants us all to be 
fighters against these evil things that beset us. The 
devil is no match even for a boy who will make as 
heroic a fight against him as this boy made against 
the eagle. " Eesist the devil, and he will flee from 
you." 

ROBIN REDBREAST. 

Bishop Doane has written a beautiful poem of the 
pretty legend concerning the robin : 

Sweet robin, I have heard them say- 
That thou wert there upon the day 
That Christ was crowned in cruel scorn. 
And bore away one bleeding thorn ; 
That so the blush upon thy breast 
In shameful sorrow was impressed, 
And thence thy genial sympathy 
With our redeemed humanity. 

Sweet robin, would that I might be 
Bathed in my Savior's blood, like thee ; 
Bear in my breast, whate'er the loss, 
The bleeding blazon of the cross ; 



THE MASTER'S PORTRAIT. 



135 



Like ever with thy loving mind 
In fellowship with human kind ; 
And take my pattern still from thee 
In gentleness and constancy. 

THE MASTER'S PORTRAIT. 

An English, gentleman is the owner of a very fine 
hunting estate on the south coast of Spain. In the 
spring of 1882 the Austrian consul called on him and 
said that his mistress, the Empress Elizabeth, greatly- 
desired to rent his place for the season, understand- 
ing that he proposed to spend the summer in England. 
The Englishman said that he would not rent his place 
to any one, but he would feel highly honored if her 
Majesty would occupy it during his absence. When 
he returned with his family in the autumn, his wife 
received a note from the Empress, saying that she 
would pass through Jerez, their winter home, on a cer- 
tain day, and desired to breakfast with her. Her 
Majesty expressed her indebtedness for a delightful 
summer, and urged that she be allowed to make some 
compensation for the place ; but the offer was grace- 
fully refused. At length the Empress said : " Is there 
nothing I can do to show my appreciation of your 
kindness and courtesy?" "Well," replied the gen- 
tleman, "if on your Majesty's return to Vienna you 
will send me a small photograph with your autograph, 
I shall be pleased to possess it." Several months 
passed without the appearance of the promised por- 
trait, and the English family rather unwillingly ar- 
rived at the conclusion that the illustrious lady had 



136 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



entirely forgotten them and her promise, when one 
day an enormous box arrived, containing a finely 
framed full-length oil painting of the Empress, exe- 
cuted by one of the first artists of Europe. That was 
surely a deed worthy of a queen, and is a suggestion 
of the way Christ treats us. He gives us himself — not 
simply a picture to hang on the wall, but he comes 
and dwells in our hearts, a royal guest, giving us the 
constant honor and glory of his presence. 

BEAUTY ITS OWN EXCUSE, 

Often in the heart of the slums I have found, 
hedged in by circumstances and life gross and impure, 
a life or a family of lives as pure and wholesome as 
one could find anywhere in the world ; and as I mar- 
veled I have thought of Emerson's song when he 
found the beautiful Khodora in the May woods with 
its beauty surrounded by the muddy swamp : 

If the sages ask thee why 
This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, 
Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, 
Then beauty is its own excuse for being. 

CHRIST INDORSING OUR BROTHER'S CLAIM. 

"I'll tell you a story about President Cleveland 
that you probably never heard," said a prominent 
politician recently. And he proceeded to relate how 
one of those rascally loafers in Washington who some- 
times find their way into office rented the house of an 
aged widow, who was dependent on that source for 



CHRIST INDORSING OUR BROTHER 'S CLAIM. 137 



her entire income. He put her off from month to 
month, and finally laughed in her face as he told her 
that he would not pay, and that she could not make 
him pay. He would not go out till the law put him 
out, and he would avail himself of all the delays pos- 
sible. She consulted a lawyer who had been a friend 
of her family for years ; but the loaf erish officeholder 
was even more impudent to him. The case was so 
hard that the attorney went personally to the Presi- 
dent, who heard the facts, and then said in an indig- 
nant tone : "Get the fellow's note." "But his note 
isn't worth the paper it is written on." "No matter. 
Get his note and bring it to me." There was no trou- 
ble in carrying out this request, the debtor expressing 
his delight at being allowed to settle at the trouble 
of writing a worthless obligation. The lawyer took 
it to the President and said : " Now what? " " This," 
replied the President, as he wrote his name across the 
back; "I indorse it, now demand payment." The 
officeholder was in a leading hotel when the lawyer 
walked up to him and asked a settlement as he handed 
him the note. The fellow sneered until he turned the 
paper over. Then he turned purple, stammered out a 
request that the lawyer wait there for ten minutes, 
and inside of that time he was back with the money. 
Jesus Christ has indorsed the claim of the poorest and 
weakest of our fellow men on our brotherly kindness 
and mercy. He has written across the back of their 
claim : " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 



138 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



THE LAME TAKE THE PREY. 

The strength of weakness, the assurance that not 
in pride and self-sufficiency lie the Christian's power, 
but rather in perfect reliance on God's mercy and 
love, is brought out very clearly by Charles Wesley in 
what many consider his masterpiece, the poem en- 
titled " Wrestling J acob. " He closes his great poem 
with these verses : 

Contented now, upon my thigh 

I halt, till life's short journey end ; 
All helplessness, all weakness, I 

On thee alone for strength depend ; 
Nor have I power from thee to move ; 
Thy nature and thy name is Love. 

Lame as I am, I take the prey ; 

Hell, earth, and sin with ease o'ercome; 
I leap for joy, pursue my way, 

And as a bounding hart fly home, 
To all eternity to prove 
Thy nature and thy name is Love. 

SAVING THE FRAGMENTS. 

It is stated that cars which cost originally over one 
hundred and fifty thousands dollars are being reduced 
to scrap-iron and ashes by a Brooklyn trolley com- 
pany. The superintendent of the road is reported as 
stating that the reason for the company not selling 
the old coaches is because they would bring only 
twenty-five dollars each, delivered, while in old metal 
alone they get about seventy dollars. One wonders 
why some one in that company did not conceive the 



DETECTING FALSE JEWELS. 139 



gracious idea of breaking those cars up instead of 
burning them, and giving the wood to the poor or sell- 
ing it at a price within their reach. There is waste 
enough about some modern cities to take the sting of 
poverty out of hundreds and thousands of impover- 
ished homes. The Savior's exhortation, "Gather up 
the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost," needs 
constant reiteration in these days. 

SANCTIMONIOUSNESS. 

Wilhelm Mliller has a striking little couplet which 
aptly hits off the man who drags his professed piety 
in on all occasions : 

Do you know why Goodman's glances always wander toward 
the skies? 

'Tis because he dare not look a fellow creature in the eyes. 

DETECTING FALSE JEWELS. 

A jewel expert has discovered that by looking at 
objects through a screen of two glass plates, laid one 
upon the other, one being of a blue tint and the other 
of a yellow tint, some objects show a difference which 
to the naked eye appear the same in color. Thus, a 
green emerald looks a rosy violet through the glass ; 
but a false green emerald looks green. True sap- 
phire keeps its natural blue through the screen, and 
false blue sapphire appears a rosy red. An Egyptian 
cup in Sevres blue paste appeared blue, save a part 
restored, which was red. He was able to conclude 
that the Egyptian paste had a base of copper blue, 



140 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



and the restored part one of cobalt. Men may patch 
up their lives, and cover the cracks and seamy places 
so that human eyes may not see the difference ; but 
God sees, and only the genuine soul can pass his judg- 
ment-day. 

SYMPATHY. 

The humblest men and women in the world may be 
a blessing to their fellows if they are truly sympa- 
thetic. Elizabeth Barrett Browning brings this out 
very tenderly in one of the verses of her little poem, 
"AKeed": 

I am no trumpet, but a reed, — 
A broken reed, the wind indeed 

Left flat upon a dismal shore : 
Yet if a little maid or child 
Should sigh within it, earnest-mild, 

This reed will answer evermore. 

LOST IN THE SAND. 

Sven Hedin, in "Through Asia," gives a most 
startling picture of the horror of being lost in the 
desert. They toiled on for life — bare life. Then 
imagine their amazement when on the long surface of 
a dune they perceived human footsteps imprinted in 
the sand. Down they went on their knees and ex- 
amined them. There was no doubt of it. They were 
the footprints of human beings. Surely they could 
not be very far off from the river now. In an instant 
they were wide awake. They followed up the trail 
till they came to the top of a dune where the sand was 



BROTHERHOOD TRANSFORMING CHARITY. 141 



driven together in a hard, compact mass, and the foot- 
prints could be more distinctly made out. The leader 
dropped on his knees, then cried in a scarcely audi- 
ble voice : " They are our own footsteps ! n That is 
only a suggestion of what it means to have lost the 
path across the desert of life on the way to eternity. 
To have lost hope, lost heart, lost heaven, — who can 
tell what that means? Multitudes are so lost, and it 
is our blessed privilege to find them and bring them 
back to hope. 

BROTHERHOOD TRANSFORMING CHARITY. 

No man has sounded a stronger note of the Christ- 
liness and transforming glory of real brotherhood than 
James Eussell Lowell in " Sir Launf al. " How clearly 
it comes out in that scene in the first part of the 
poem, where the young and proud Sir Launfal tosses 
the leper a gift of gold, but in the spirit of scorn. 

The leper raised not the gold from the dust : — 

"Better to me the poor man's crust, 

Better the blessing of the poor, 

Tho I turn me empty from his door : 

That is no true alms which the hand can hold 

He gives only the worthless gold 

Who gives from a sense of duty ; 
But he who gives but a slender mite, 
And gives to that which is out of sight, — 

That thread of the all-sustaining Beauty 
Which runs through all and doth all unite, — 
The hand can not clasp the whole of his alms, 
The heart outstretches its eager palms ; 
For a god goes with it and makes it store 
To the soul that was starving in darkness before." 



142 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



UNEXPECTED HUMAN GOLD. 

In Mayfield, Ky . , not long since, a young woman 
tried to cross the track at the depot in front of a 
freight train. One foot caught between the tracks, 
and she could not get it loose. She screamed, and a 
passing tramp leaped to her aid. He got her free and 
threw her off the track just in time ; but was himself 
caught, drawn under the wheels, and instantly killed. 
He was a typical tramp in appearance. In the pocket 
of his ragged coat was found a " hand-out " luncheon 
wrapped in paper. No wonder the town gave him an 
honorable funeral. Who will say there was not in 
that man a vein of human gold worth seeking after 
and denying oneself in order to save? 

THE SICK SOUL. 

Nowhere outside of the Bible is the horrid disease 
of sin more honestly portrayed than in Shakespeare. 
How clearly he brings it out in " Hamlet," where he 
makes the cruel, wicked queen say : 

To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is, 
Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss : 
So full of artless jealousy is guilt, 
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. 

THE SWARM OF BUTTERFLIES. 

A strange sight was witnessed at Wichita, Kan., on 
one of the hottest of summer days. It was a swarm 
of brilliant butterflies that for a time filled the air. 
The winged travelers were one great mass of brilliant, 



PRAYER-MEETING AND SALOON. 143 



vibrating color. At a short distance they resembled 
a heavy shower of autumn leaves. The fluttering of 
so many wings produced a somewhat dizzy sensation, 
and to the observer the passing yellow and brown 
cloud appeared like the departure of Indian summer. 
Altho there were countless billions of them, there 
was no sound save the gentle and scarcely percepti- 
ble purr. They were several hours in passing. It 
is supposed that the butterflies were part of a swarm 
driven out of Colorado by the forest fires. The world 
is full of butterflies — human butterflies — who flee 
from the fires of trial and struggle, and perish in the 
day when real character is essential. 

ENTERPRISE. 

Youth ought to be full of enterprise and courage. 
Nothing is more pitiable than to see a young man or 
a young woman without high ideals and noble ambi- 
tion. Emerson extols the beauty of this daring in 
young manhood : 

On prince or bride no diamond stone 
Half so gracious ever shone 
As the light of enterprise 
Beaming from a young man's eyes. 

PRAYER-MEETING AND SALOON. 

In Dayton, Ohio, lives a plasterer, fifty years old, 
and father of a large family of children. Liquor has 
mastered him for a good while. He had choked and 
beaten his wife one day ; and his eldest daughter, who 
was twenty years of age, a lovely character, and a de- 



144 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



vout member of the church, when she went to prayer- 
meeting that night asked her Christian friends to pray 
for her father, and offered herself a tearful and touch- 
ing invocation that her parent might change his ways. 
The next day the father, after spending two or three 
hours at the saloon, borrowed a double-barreled shot- 
gun and returned home with the intention of murder- 
ing the entire household. This daughter was the 
only one at home. As she fled, he fired one barrel at 
the retreating form, but missed. The second shot 
took effect in her head, and she fell dead on the floor. 
The murderer then returned to the saloon where he 
had obtained the stimulant to do his dastardly deed 
and related the story of the crime. And yet that 
saloon is as much a protected institution of the State 
as the prayer-meeting the daughter attended the night 
before. How long shall such things be? 

TROUBLES THAT DO NOT COME. 

Christ's words, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil 
thereof," need constant repetition and emphasis in a 
world so full of trouble as this. It is great folly for 
us to cut the nerve of our courage to face the daily 
difficulties of life by borrowing trouble out of the fu- 
ture. Many such phantoms of trouble vanish into thin 
air before we get to them. Lettie Bigelow gives us a 
very good song concerning these " Troubles That do 
Not Come " : 

Of the hard and weary loads 
'Neath which we bend and fall, 



CHRISTMAS AND DUTY. 145 



The troubles that do not come 
Are the heaviest ones of all. 

For grief that cuts like a knife 

There's oil of comfort and cure, 
And the Hand which binds the weight 

Brings strength and grace to endure. 

But for the phantoms of pain and wo 

The lips of pity are dumb, 
And there's never oil or wine 

For troubles that do not come. 

There's a song to lighten the toil, 
And a staff for climbing the height, 

But never an alpenstock 
For the hills that are out of sight. 

There are bitter herbs enough 

In the brimming cup of to-day, 
Without the sprig of rue 

From to-morrow's unknown way. 

Then take the meal that is spread, 

And go with a song on thy way, 
And let not the morrow shade 

The sunshine and joy of to-day. 

CHRISTMAS AND DUTY, 

The first Christmas message came to the shepherds 
while they were on duty, keeping watch over their 
flocks. If they had deserted the sheep that night, 
how great would have been their loss. The best 
things always come to us in the path of duty. He 
who goes steadily on, doing the best he can in the 
place where he is, living with high motive and doing 
the unromantic deed in the romantic spirit, is in the 
line of promotion in God's world. 
10 



146 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



THE HEAVENLY ARBUTUS, 

Dr. F. H. Prather sings a beautiful song of "The 
Trailing Arbutus," that dainty, beautiful little flower 
which peeps out from between the falling leaves of 
the autumn with the first fragrance of the springtime. 
He finds in it a suggestion of the resurrection life of 
the Christian: 

A type here lies 
Of resurrection power, 
In the sweet-scented flower 

Before our eyes. 

These buds we see 
Are only clay refined ; 
But oh, the robe of mind — 

What shall it be ! 

From what has been, 
The heart can never guess 
How glorious the dress 

Unstained by sin. 

My soul is warmed, 
To think this dust of ours, 
Like loam into these flowers, 

Shall be transformed. 

And from the clod, 
Up through unfriendly storms, 
Ascend, in radiant forms, 

To dwell with God. 

KNOCKING OFF THE SHACKLES. 

At the time of the great English victory over the 
Dervishes, at Omdurman, one of the most weird and 
interesting experiences was the setting free at night 



A QUIET CONVERSION. 



147 



of the prisoners of the Khalifa. They were brought 
on board an English steamer to have their chains 
knocked off. By the light of a lamp the shackles 
were cut with a chisel and hammer. As anklet after 
anklet was struck off — for several of the prisoners 
had four thick iron rings on each ankle — the joy and 
satisfaction depicted on the faces of these miserable 
captives was a thing to remember. Among them was 
Ibrahim Pasha Eauzi, who was General Gordon's 
chief -of- staff, and who had been in chains since Feb- 
ruary, 1885. For thirteen years he had worn these 
cruel fetters. He was a very fine-looking man of 
sixty; and as the last link of his shackles fell to the 
ground, he stretched his arms toward the heavens, 
thanked the great God for his mercy, and called down 
a blessing on his saviors — the English. Christ gives 
it as one of the chief characteristics of his mission 
that he is to "proclaim liberty to the captives, and 
the opening of the prison to them that are bound." 
It is our great privilege as Christians to share Christ's 
joy in setting men free from the shackles of sin. 



A QUIET CONVERSION, 

Many Christian people rejoice in an experience like 
that of the Apostle Paul, who was struck down with 
blindness on the way to Damascus, and whose conver- 
sion was the most sudden and startling episode in his 
whole life. But there are others to whom the knowl- 
edge of Christ as a personal Savior comes more 
quietly, and with less conscious revolution, and they 



148 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



can scarcely select the hour, or the day, or it may be 
the week, when they entered into the assurance of sal- 
vation. Some poet, whose name I do not know, pic- 
tures such an experience in a little poem, entitled " The 
Unnoticed Bound " : 

In passing southward, I may cross the line 
Between the Arctic and the Atlantic Ocean. 

I may not know by any test of mind — 

By any startling signs or strange commotion 
Across my track ; 

But as the days grow brighter, one by one — 

And e'en the icebergs melt their hardened faces, 

And sailors linger, basking in the sun — 

I know I must have made the change of places 
Some distance back. . 

Thus, answ'ring timidly my Master's call, 
I passed the bourne of life in coming to him, 

When in my love for him I gave up all ; 

The very moment that I thought I knew him 
I can not tell ; 

But, as increasingly I feel his love, 

As this cold heart is melted to o'erflowing — 

And now so clear the light comes from above — 
I wonder at the change, but move on, knowing 
That all is well. 

BLOOD-POISONING. 

A hypnotist recently died in San Francisco from 
blood-poisoning contracted several months before in 
an attempt to put a cub lion under the spell of his 
power. The cub rebelled and bit the performer's 
hand. The victim was confined in a hospital for a 
while, and had been discharged as cured ; but a slight 



RESTING AND WAITING. 149 



scratch, brought a recurrence of the trouble, which 
ended in his death. Many a man has been bitten 
fatally by some lion cub of sin which, he has tried to 
hypnotize in his own strength, and many such an one 
has thought himself cured of his sin because for a 
time he has been free from it. He has considered it 
a thing of the past until some new temptation has 
aroused the poison, which was dormant in his blood 
all the time, and he has gone down quickly to com- 
plete overthrow. Sin is not to be hypnotized. It 
must be eradicated. There is one sure cure : " If we 
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us 
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 

RESTING AND "WAITING. 

How glorious to come to old age full of hope and 
courage, and able to sing the song which Annie M. 
Austin puts on the lips of one who is — 

Only resting for a season 

From the labor and the strife ; 
Only waiting for the harvest 

That will surely crown my life. 
I have planted, I have watered, 

Pausing not for rest or sleep ; 
Patient toil must bring fruition; 

I have sown and I shall reap. 

Only resting for a season ; 

Lying here with idle hands, 
Waiting for "my ship" that's coming 

From the far-off golden strand. 
She is bringing countless treasure — 

All that I have toiled to win ; 



150 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



I shall quaff from joy's full measure, 
Sometime, "When my ship comes in." 

Only resting for a season 

From the wearing hopes and fears : 
From the burdens and the sorrows 

That have gathered with th© years. 
Only resting in the twilight 

"Till the shadows flee away" ; 
Only waiting for the dawning 

Of a better, brighter day. 

No more waiting — only resting ; 

For life's harvest- time is past ; 
All its golden grain is garnered, 

All its full sheaves safe at last. 
Hands that toiled for others' helping 

Now are folded evermore ; 
And the treasure-ship is anchored 

Close beside the "Shining Shore." 

A KING AT THE DOOR. 

The Emperor William was attending the German 
army maneuvers. The army was encamped in a broad 
valley, fronting the little town of Bergkirchen, which 
is on high ground. There was a druggist's shop on 
the valley side of the town, from the veranda of 
which there was a good view of the surrounding coun- 
try. During the Kaiser's maneuvers the druggist's 
bell was rung early in the morning, between three 
and four o'clock. The man, aroused from his rest, 
got up, went to the front door, and asked: "What's 
up?" A voice answered from the outside: "Please 
just let me go on to your veranda; the army corps is 



DREAMING OF HOME. 



151 



going to be alarmed, and I should like to see it from 
there." The druggist, astonished, refused the request 
in rough language. His wife, who had meanwhile 
also awakened, added her stern rebuke to the intruder. 
The man standing outside, however, did not seem to 
mind, and repeated his request. Finally the druggist 
called out: "Well, who are you? What's your 
name?" "Wilhelm," came promptly back. "Iam 
no wiser than I was. Lots of people are called Wil- 
helm. What is your other name ? " " Yon Hohenzol- 
lern," the voice replied. Only now did it begin to 
dawn upon the druggist who his visitor was. He tore 
open the door and before him stood the Emperor. 
One can imagine his dismay and shame. But many 
there are who just as ignorantly and angrily are keep- 
ing the King of kings waiting at their door. Jesus 
says: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if 
any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will 
come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with 
me." 

DREAMING OF HOME. 

Many a man who has fought his way bravely 
through the hard battles of life has had his hours of 
longing, when Eugene Field's poem, "Dreaming of 
Home," expressed the sweetness of his own anticipa- 
tions : 

When I go home again ! There's music 

That never may die away, 
And it seems the hands of angels, 

On a mystic harp at play, 



152 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Have touched with a yearning sadness, 

On a beautiful broken strain, 
To which my fond heart is wording, 

"When I go home again." 

Outside of my darkened window 

Is the great world's crash and din, 
And slowly the autumn shadows 

Come drifting, drifting in ; 
Sobbing the night-wind murmurs 

To the splash of the autumn rain ; 
But I dream of the glorious greeting 

When I go home again ! 

THE SOLDIER'S HARDIHOOD. 

An English officer who has seen a great deal of serv- 
ice in Egypt declares that where a soldier is on active 
service he gets so " tit " that it does not matter much 
what he eats and he does not care. He is hungry, 
and he takes whatever comes. On battle days one 
often will not touch a bite of food all day. He says 
that in constant service the muscles become so strong 
that a man can go many hours without food, and will 
eat what he would never think of accepting without 
protest if he were not on active service. There is 
here a good suggestion for Christian soldiers. If we 
are giving ourselves up to the service of humanity, 
working with all our might to help capture the world 
for Christ, we will not be worrying or complaining 
about the kind of spiritual fare the Lord gives us. 
There will be in our service something so delightful 
that its inspiration will give us zest and an appetite 
that will furnish abundant digestion for the plain ex- 



THE PEARL-FIELDS. 



153 



periences of our daily life. It is the people who are 
lying around camp, doing nothing except morbidly 
inspecting their own hearts, who are always getting 
into trouble over their religious experience. The 
great fighters in the army of Christ never have any 
trouble with the commissary department. 

LOVE, 

Love's kingdom covers all seasons and all ages. 
Wilf ord Campbell has a poem suggesting how in youth 
and age love meets our human wants : 

Love came at dawn, when all the world was fair, 
When crimson glories bloomed and songs were rife ; 

Love came at dawn, when hope's wings fanned the air, 
And murmured, "I am life." 

Love came at even, when the day was done, 

When heart and brain were tired and slumber pressed ; 

Love came at eve, shut out the sinking sun, 
And whispered, "I am rest." 

THE PEARL-FIELDS, 

A rare opportunity for gathering rich pearls has 
been discovered off the west coast of the colony of 
New Caledonia. The pearls on the ocean-bed along 
this coast are very abundant and beautiful. They are 
generally white and of a beautiful water. Fre- 
quently, however, they are pink, gray, or black, and 
a number are often found in the same shell. The dis- 
covery of a new pearl-field can not help but suggest 
to the thoughtful Christian Christ's comparison of the 
soul's salvation to a precious and costly pearl. The 



154 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Savior says : " The kingdom of heaven is like unto a 
merchantman, seeking goodly pearls ; who, when he 
had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all 
that he had, and bought it." These spiritual pearl- 
fields are rich and abundant in all our large towns 
and cities. The spiritual pearl-diver will also find 
pearls of many kinds, but all of them beautiful in the 
eyes of his Lord. He will find, too, many a home 
shell with numerous pearls in it, where father, mother, 
and children may all be won as priceless jewels for 
his Master. 

THE HAND OF JESUS. 

Christ came close to people during his earthly min- 
istry, and his hand of help or mercy was often in evi- 
dence. Katherine Purvis sings a beautiful song, en- 
titled "My Savior's Hand ": 

That tender hand — in dark Gethsemane 

Kaised in the prayer, "Thy will, not mine, be done ! " — 
Was torn and bleeding in the agony 

Through which my guilty soul salvation won. 

That chastening hand sometimes doth sorely rest 

Upon me while the storms of sorrow fall, 
Yet draws me till I lean upon his breast, 

Aud find in him my strength, my hope, my all. 

That guiding hand leads me from day to day, 

And smooths my path across earth's desert drear; 

It holds me fast — my sure and only stay — 
As life recedes, and heaven's lights appear. 

Oh, loving hand, when shadows deepen fast, 
And in the gloom I hear death's billows foam, 

Draw me so near my eyes rest at the last 
Upon the face of him who bears me home ! 



ONE BY ONE. 



155 



VICTORY OVER COWARDICE. 

Sir Charles Napier had an effective method of deal- 
ing with cowards. On one occasion a flying soldier 
was stopped by his fellows, who were about to shoot 
him, when the general intervened. "Give the man 
another chance," he ordered. "Place him in the 
front rank, and if he turns again let him be shot." 
The man eagerly embraced this chance of life, over- 
came his fears, and ever fought bravely afterward. 
"There goes the bravest man in the army," said the 
old Kaiser Wilhelm, on the battlefield of Sadowa, as 
a pale young officer cheered his men on to the charge. 
" He is terribly afraid of being shot, and he knows it, 
but he loves his duty and country more than his per- 
sonal safety, and that is what makes him lead his 
men on so gallantly." That is the highest kind of 
bravery. No man should give himself up to be a 
moral coward because in the past he has failed of 
standing bravely for the right. Let him nerve him- 
self by recalling Christ's supreme sacrifice for him. 
If a man can bring Christ's cross close to himself and 
realize that his suffering was in his behalf, there is a 
power in it to make him brave and heroic. 

ONE BY ONE. 

Fanny Crosby, the blind hymn-writer, on the death 
of Dr. Robert Lowry, who was her dear friend, wrote 
a little hymn, entitled "One by One," which will ex- 
press the feelings of many of us concerning our own 
loved ones. How glorious is the Christian's hope 



156 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



when standing by the grave of his friend he is able to 
sing— 

They have reached the land of promise, 

With the faithful gone before ; 
Safe within the Golden City 

They shall dwell forevermore. 
Through the Savior they have conquered 

And their lifework now is done; 
At the river — tranquil river — 

They are gathering, one by one ! 

FEAR AND BLESSING. 

When the angels came with their " good tidings of 
great joy," the first effect on the listening shepherds 
was to frighten them. If the sky had been full of 
ghosts, they would not have been more alarmed, and 
perhaps that is what they thought was the fact 
When Jesus came walking on the water in the midst 
of the storm which threatened his disciples with ship 
wreck, they, too, were afraid and thought they be 
held a ghost. But how changed were their feeling 
when his loving voice uttered the assuring words 
" It is I ; be not afraid ! " People are often fright 
ened in these days at the coming of heaven's messen 
gers with good tidings. Many a great blessing comes 
to us in unexpected guise, and when we first see it we 
are alarmed. We should have such abiding faith in 
the kindness of God toward us and in his ability to 
care for us as to know that no harm can come to us in 
this world. Christmas should teach us to have hope 
not fear, of God's providence. The new mercies of 



THE HEROIC TEMPER. 



157 



God which, shall come every morning are more than a 
match for the new trials we shall have to confront. 

MEMORIES OF MOTHER. 

Many a white-haired man will find an echo in his 
heart to Betty Garland's "When My Mother Tucks 
Me In," and be ready to join her in the petition of the 
last two verses : 

Now the stricken years have borne me 

Far away from love and home ; 
Ah ! no mother leans above me 

In the nights that go and come. 
But it gives me peace and comfort, 

When my heart is sore within, 
Just to lie right still and, dreaming, 

Think my mother tucked me in. 

Oh, the gentle, gentle breathing 

To her dear heart's softer beat ; 
And the quiet, quiet moving 

Of her soft-shod, willing feet ! 
And, O Time, one boon I ask thee, 

Whatsoe'er may be my sin, 
When I'm dying let me see her 

As she used to tuck me in. 

THE HEROIC TEMPER. 

Professor Nasse, a well-known man of learning in 
Berlin, was traveling in the Alps with Dr. Borchardt, 
of the same city, and two guides. The four men, 
roped together, were crossing over a snow-bridge 
which was considered safe by the guides. The bridge 



158 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



gave way, and the leading guide and Professor Nasse 
fell into a crevasse. Professor Nasse had the rope 
around his chest and hung in mid-air. A half -hour 
later, to relieve this awful strain and to give a possi- 
ble chance for saving the life intrusted to him, the 
guide cut the rope between himself and Professor 
Nasse, and disappeared into the depths. The other 
guide and Dr. Borchardt were then able to pull Pro- 
fessor Nasse up. It is cheering to know that the 
guide who so bravely offered his life was not killed, 
but was found unhurt by the rescue party. This 
guide was a great hero. Christianity calls upon us to 
live ever in that heroic temper which holds earthly 
things and even the earthly life itself with an easy 
grasp, which we are ready to loosen rather than to fail 
of fidelity to truth and goodness. We may never be 
asked any great sacrifice, but if we live in that spirit 
of willingness to surrender everything rather than 
prove treacherous to Christ, we are Christian heroes. 

EASTER LILIES. 

Those who have lost sweet lilies out of their homes 
may take comfort in this song of Amelia Barr's : 

The Master is seeking lilies to-day, 

And he bends his steps to the lotus stream ; 
Golden-hearted, and pale, they lay, 
Full of wonderful peace like a holy dream. 
Calm-browed women, over whom the Dove 
Broodeth in still perpetual love, 
Watching and waiting with patient eyes ; 
And he gathered them first for Paradise. 



APPRECIATING VALUES. 



159 



Then he paused where the sunshine was warm and bright, 

And the glorious lilies of Judah's land 
In the heaven's own purple, the saints' own white, 
Bent lowly and lovingly down to his hand. 
Eoyal natures, unselfish and pure, 
Strong to contend and strong to endure, 
"The Master doth need you," that will suffice, 
Whether on earth or in Paradise. 

Stoopeth he now 'mong the long dewy grass, 

And sweet little lily-bells folds to his breast ; 
Ah, how he loves them ! yet with grudging, alas ! 
We give to the Master the flowers he loves best. 
Frail wee blossoms not fit for the strife, 
The sorrow and pains of mortal life ; 
Yet somewhere, we know, beyond the skies, 
The lily-bells bloom in Paradise. 

We see, but we see through our tears and sighs ; 

The parable sweet is but dimly read, 
Else to the heavens we should lift our eyes, 
Never bemoaning our loved as dead. 
The fairest blossom in all our home 
Suddenly fades from our loving eyes ; 
Dead? No, for the Lord hath only come 
For lilies to plant in Paradise. 

APPRECIATING VALUES, 

A Southern newspaper tells a story of a woman who 
had no idea of the value of money. It happened one 
day that her eyes fell upon a magnificent ring, and 
she coveted it. The price of the ring was one thou- 
sand dollars. But what was one thousand dollars to 
her in comparison to the ring? Her husband con- 
sented to the purchase ; but he took an interesting 
method of educating his wife concerning the great 



160 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



price of the ring. He instructed his banker to send 
her the one thousand dollars in small pieces — pennies, 
dimes, quarters. In came the money, bagful after 
bagful. She never had such an idea of one thousand 
dollars before. When the money was piled before 
her, it alarmed her ; the price of the ring went up in 
her estimation a hundredfold, and was considered at 
once an extravagance which she of her own option 
abandoned. If we could always appreciate the value 
of money in the light and comfort and hope which it 
may bring souls in darkness and trouble, it would 
check many a selfish purchase, and give us a more just 
idea of the trusteeship by which we hold our money. 

EVIL IMAGINATIONS. 

In " Macbeth " Shakespeare shows how the imagina- 
tion becomes an instrument in the hand of conscience 
to administer punishment to the sinning soul : 

If good, why do I yield to that suggestion 
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, 
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, 
Against the use of nature? Present fears 
Are less than horrible imaginings. 

THE SKYLARK. 

"He's got a good broad cap, strong face, nice 
full breast. I'll warrant him, "said the dealer. The 
creature thus summed up was not a pony or a dog, 
but an English skylark. Brave little fellow, he had 
been caught in some snare on his native meadow, had 
traveled in his jail across land and sea, and is now put 



THE NARROW MARGIN. 161 



into a brown-paper bag, to be carried as unceremoni- 
ously as a pint of peanuts to a dark restaurant on a 
narrow street; but he will not lose his courage. Give 
him six inches of turf on the bottom of his cage and 
a glint of sunshine at the window, and he will stand 
on his tiptoes and sing until all the street will catch 
something of the heavenly enthusiasm of his music. 
Men and women who love Christmas, and have caught 
the Christmas spirit in their hearts, should carry it 
with them into all the dark places of life, sweetening 
and blessing and inspiring as they go. 

THE NARROW MARGIN. 

On the night of Christ's last supper with his dis- 
ciples, when he said to them that one of their group 
was to betray him, they turned in horror, inquiring : 
" Lord, is it I? " That there is that in us which 
makes us akin both to the good man and the bad man, 
of both the lowest and the highest qualit}', James 
Eussell Lowell brings out clearly in these lines : 

Looking within myself, I note how thin 

A plank of station, chance, or prosperous fate, 
Doth fence me from the clutching waves of sin ; 
In my own heart I find the worst man's mate, 
And see not dimly the smooth-hinged gate 

That opes to those abysses 
Where ye grope darkly, — ye who never knew 
On your young hearts love's consecrating dew, 
Or felt a mother's kisses, 
Or home's restraining tendrils round you curled ; 
Ah, side by side with heartsease, in this world 
The fatal nightshade grows and bitter rue ! 
11 



162 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



THE PASSING OF TIME. 

In Switzerland they have commenced making phono- 
graphic clocks and watches which surpass anything 
heretofore attempted. By merely pressing the button 
of the new timepiece it pronounces the hour distinctly. 
The alarm calls to the sleeper: "It's six o'clock; get 
up ! " There are some which even add the words : 
"Now, don't goto sleep again." The form can be 
changed to suit the buyer and make the warning 
more or less emphatic. And yet it is doubtful whether 
such an ingenious clock would be more than a tem- 
porary help in arousing a sluggish man. If we do 
not properly estimate the value of time, and have no 
abiding monitor within us to which we give heed, the 
outward alarm will be of little avail. People who 
are waiting for some strange cry from heaven to call 
them to repentance will also wait in vain. They have 
their own consciences, and they have God's Word; 
and if they will not hear these, they would not hear 
a messenger from the skies. Father Abraham said 
to Dives, in the Gospel story, when urged to send 
somebody to warn his brethren : " If they hear not 
Moses and the prophets, neither will they be per- 
suaded, tho one rose from the dead." 

DO IT TO-DAY. 

Many hearts break because the sympathy which is 
felt and the kind word which rises for utterance never 
find expression, being deferred until another occasion. 
Let us not put off the duty which ought to be done 



THE HOME SPIRIT. 



163 



now. Some unknown poet impresses this message 
very clearly in a poem, entitled "When I Have 
Time " : 

When I have time so many things I'll do 
To make life happier and more fair 
For those whose lives are crowded now with care ; 
I'll help to lift them from their low despair, 
When I have time. 

When I have time the friend I love so well 
Shall know no more these weary, toiling days ; 
I'll lead her feet in pleasant paths always, 
And cheer her heart with words of sweetest praise, 
When I have time. 

When you have time ! The friend you hold so dear 
May be beyond the reach of all your sweet intent, 
May never know that you so kindly meant 
To fill her life with sweet content, 
When you had time. 

Now is the time ! Ah, friend, no longer wait 
To scatter loving smiles and words of cheer 
To those around whose lives are now so dear ; 
They may not need you in the coming year — 
Now is the time. 

THE HOME SPIRIT. 

A volunteer from Albany, 1ST. Y., who was in Hono- 
lulu, found the food unbearable as he was recovering 
from a slight illness, and felt an irresistible longing 
for dainties of some kind. After some thought, he 
concluded that he wanted a jar of jelly more than 
anything else that he could think of. He remem- 
bered the currant jelly which his mother used to 
make, and his mouth watered at the recollection. So 



164 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



he took some money out of his small store and went 
into the city to buy. He picked out a confectioner's 
shop, and, going in, asked for a glass of jelly — cur- 
rant jelly preferred, if they had such a thing. To his 
surprise and delight the man behind the counter pro- 
duced a glass of the very kind that he wanted. He 
bought it at once, it looked and tasted so much like 
his mother's. And sure enough, when he examined 
the jar, on the bottom was pasted a piece of white 
paper with some writing on it. Imagine his surprise 
when he saw that the writing, which was somewhat 
blurred, was the name of his own mother. But it is 
not only in the cooking that the true mother puts her 
stamp on her boy. If the home is prayerful and rev- 
erent toward God, a child may wander to the ends of 
the earth ; but in some unexpected hour of loneliness 
and homesickness the memory of mother's hymns or 
prayers will move the wanderer to seek again the 
house of God, where he may find the spirit which pre- 
vailed in his childhood's home. 



THE ANGEL ON THE STONE. 

William Canton sings a song of "Easter Dawn," 
which fathers and mothers who have lost little chil- 
dren out of their arms will know how to appreciate. 
And all of them who love Jesus and trust him shall 
have the prayer answered : 

Love sought Thee in the darkness ere the day ; 

Love came with spices, weeping, full of care. 
The stone which closed thy tomb was rolled away ; 

But thou — thou wast not there. 



FORMALITY. 



165 



Love found thy winding-sheet, and, laid apart, 
Thy face-cloth wrapped together ; these alone ; 

And saw an angel— saw with trembling heart 
An angel on the stone. 

Love heard thy footsteps turned with streaming eyes, 
Beheld, but knew thee not, till, low and sweet, 

Thy voice revealed thee ; then, with joyous cries, 
Fell down and clasped thy feet. 

risen Lord, by thy transpierced heart, 
And by the dawn of that first Easter Day. 

The winding-sheet, the face-cloth laid apart, 
The grave-stone rolled away — 

1 pray thee, in the darkness where I lie, 
Not for a vision in the morning sun, 

Not for a word that I may know him by — 
(Not know my little one?) 

But only this, this only of thy grace, 

O risen Lord, this little thing alone : 
Show me his little grave quite empty, and in place 

An angel on the stone. 

FORMALITY. 

" A City of Zinc " is the name which, may appro- 
priately be given to a new city of Portuguese East 
Africa — Beira. All the houses, all the hotels and 
public buildings, barracks and warehouses, are built 
of zinc. So great has been the speculation in build- 
ing, and so urgent the need for supplying the inhabi- 
tants with cheap and speedily erected dwellings, that 
a city has been built up in six months. Thousands 
of tons of zinc from France, England, and America 
supplied the material. The unpleasant impression 
produced by the aspect of this zinc town is height- 



166 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



ened by the thought that men have to dwell in these 
houses under a tropical heat. Everything in this 
strange city is under the dominion of the metal. 
Even when a person falls ill he is carried on a zinc 
stretcher to a hospital which is also, of course, made 
of zinc. And if he dies, he is laid to rest in a zinc 
coffin. This reminds me of some churches I have 
known, where everything was so cold and formal and 
stiff that all thought of love and religious enthusiasm 
was chilled out of existence. A formal usher showed 
the worshiper into a fashionable pew, where he lis- 
tened to music esthetically but coldly rendered, and 
to prayers and sermons scholarly, but coldly deliv- 
ered, and retired at the close of the service feeling 
very much like a man on his zinc cot in a zinc hos- 
pital. A lady recently said, when asked what kind 
of a preacher she liked : " One with the chill off. " 
And the chill must be taken off the church, from 
usher to pulpit, if souls are to be converted in it. 
These zinc churches are the greatest stumbling-blocks 
in the earth in the way of Christian conquest. 

SONG OF IMMORTALITY. 

Elizabeth Loe Watson sings a sweet song of Easter, 
with the testimony of nature bearing witness to the 
soul and suggesting the more splendid blossoming of 
the heavenly springtime : 

Arise ! arise ! O Soul, and sing ! 

The Lord of Life hath come in might; 
And all the world is blossoming 

Beneath his kiss of love and light ! 



TRAINING BIRDS TO SING. 167 



The hills doff robes of rusty brown, 

And, draped in living tapestries, 
With sunshine for a golden crown, 

Eeturn the smiles of cloudless skies. 

The air is full of winged delight, 

A-thrill with joy the dullest clod, 
The trees, all hung with garlands white, 

Breathe smokeless incense unto God. 

And thou, Soul, with eyes to see, 
And ears that like fine harps are strung, 

With heart that thrones Divinity 
And knows Love's universal tongue, 

Shouldst voice a rapture all divine, 

And fair as any flower be 
The garments that about thee shine, 

Thou heir of immortality ! 

TRAINING BIRDS TO SING. 

In a little town in New Jersey there is a man who 
has a bird-training organ. It stands as high as an 
old-time clock, and the air is forced through the pipes 
by means of weights similar to the weights in a clock's 
works. The singers that are being trained are kept 
in cloth-covered boxes with the curtains pulled down. 
They learn to sing best in the dark. They will learn 
to sing all the tunes played by the organ. They be- 
come so trained in the music taught them that they 
seldom improvise. Just as the mocking-bird imitates 
by nature such tunes as he hears, the canary will sing 
any air he is schooled in. The Lord is teaching us to 
sing the heavenly songs. Many of them we must 
learn in the dark. We should also be careful to 



168 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



choose such associations as will not interfere with the 
divine tunes of the Christian life in which we are 
seeking to perfect ourselves. 

GOD'S ANGELS. 

God's angels oftentimes come to men disguised. It 
was so in olden times, and it is so now. Lowell sings 
of some of these disguises : 

But all God's angels come to us disguised : 
Sorrow and sickness, poverty and death, 
One after other lift their frowning masks, 
And we behold the seraph's face beneath, 
All radiant with the glory and the calm 
Of having looked upon the front of God. 

THE LIGHT WE SHED. 

American lanterns are exported to all countries of 
the world where lanterns are used. Many are sent 
to South Africa, and to South America, to Australia 
and New Zealand, and not a few are sold in Asia. 
The American lanterns are the lightest, the sightliest 
in appearance, and the best adapted to their use, and 
they are sold cheaper than lanterns of equal quality 
produced elsewhere. There are a number of large 
establishments in this country making lanterns only. 
It is interesting, this fact that American lanterns lead 
the world. It will certainly be because we fail to do 
our duty if we do not lead the world in giving light 
of an intellectual and moral quality. We have no 
right to hide the light which God has given us by his 



FELLOWSHIP WITH JESUS. 



169 



providence, but we are debtors to every ignorant and 
heathen nation in the world until we have given them 
the light of intelligence and the light of the Gospel 
message which is so precious to us. Christ is saying 
to us as to the early disciples : " Ye are the light of 
the world. A city that is set on a hill can not be hid. 
Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a 
bushel, but on a candlestick ; and it giveth light unto 
all that are in the house. Let your light so shine be- 
fore men, that they may see your good works, and 
glorify your Father which is in heaven. 99 

FELLOWSHIP WITH JESUS. 

An old Huguenot hymn expresses with great ten- 
derness the precious fellowship which exists between 
Christ and his friends : 

I have a Friend so precious, 

So very dear to me, 
He loves me with such tender love, 

He loves so faithfully, 
I could not live apart from him, 

I love to feel him nigh, 
And so we dwell together, 

My Lord and I. 

Sometimes I'm faint and weary, 

He knows that I am weak. 
And as he bide me lean on him, 

His help I gladly seek ; 
He leads me in the paths of light 

Beneath a sunny sky, 
And so we walk together, 

My Lord and I. 



170 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



HOMESICKNESS, 

One man from the colored troops on the fighting- 
line at Santiago was brought into the field hospital, 
not wounded, but stunned by the explosion of a shell 
which had fallen near him. There was nothing the 
matter with him but the shock to his nerves and home- 
sickness. He spoke to no one, he would take no food ; 
and he sat huddled together on his cot, looking out 
from the open flies of the hospital tent with a face 
full of unspeakable loneliness. Every morning, when 
she came to the hospital, a kind woman visitor among 
the Red Cross nurses would bring him some little 
thing which she had prepared for him at home ; little 
by little she awakened his interest, and finally he was 
dismissed from the hospital happy and well. Alas, in 
all cases the remedy is not at hand ! One of the army 
surgeons tells the story of a poor boy who was simply 
dying of homesickness. The doctor stopped by him 
one day, where he was sitting with his face in his 
hands, and put his hand on his shoulder and spoke a 
word or two, and the poor fellow looked up and said : 
"You are the first one that's spoken a kind word to 
me since I came." But the major was a hard man, 
and thought the man was only lazy, and hunted the 
poor chap out of the hospital and set him to work 
loading stuff in the commissary department. That 
afternoon the doctor came across him sitting on a 
sack of grain with his head down, and noticed that he 
had slumped forward. He laid hold of him and 
found that he was dead. He had died of homesick- 



ANGELIC MESSENGERS. 



171 



ness. Workers in city churches ought never to lose 
sight of the fact that every autumn multitudes of 
young men and young women are skimmed off the 
best quality of life of the farms and smaller towns, 
and are worked into the makeup of the city business 
houses. These young people have weeks and months 
of homesickness and loneliness, during which time 
they are peculiarly susceptible to friendly influences, 
whether good or bad. It is the great harvest oppor- 
tunity for the church. A cheerful happy Christian, 
full of the spirit of brotherhood, can make sure of his 
armful of sheaves by giving kindly attention to these 
homesick young men and young women. 

ANGELIC MESSENGERS. 

It is sweet to believe that the dwellers in the skies 
come on loving service to us in the midst of our strug- 
gles here on earth. And it 'is certainly in harmony 
with God's Word and with the spirit of the mission 
of Him who " was rich, and yet for our sake became 
poor." Edmund Spenser tells of these comforting 
visitants in these lines : 

How oft do they their silver bowers leave, 

And come to succor us who succor want? 

How oft do they with golden pinions cleave 

The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant, 

Against foul fiends, to aid us militant? 

They for us fight, they watch, and duly ward, 

And their bright squadrons round about us plant, 

And all for love, and nothing for reward ! 

Oh, why should heavenly God to men have such regard ! 



172 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



THE GUERRILLA "WARFARE OF THE TONGUE, 

A good story is told of Lady Curzon, the wife of the 
new Viceroy of India. The story is of the days when 
she was Miss Leiter, of Washington, and tells of the 
blow she gave to gossip. Three sisters, brilliant, bnt 
nnscrnpulous, noted for their witty, mischievous 
tongues, had a way of making up stories and attach- 
ing them to any one who chanced to offend them. 
One of these malicious stories was being rehearsed in 
Miss Leiter' s presence, and fair names were about to 

be blackened. " Did the Misses say that? " she 

asked. The narrator admitted them as her authority. 
Miss Leiter sighed, and said slowly : " Battle, murder, 
and sudden death." From that day to this the girls 
composing the mischievous trio have been known 
as "Battle," " Murder," and "Sudden Death." The 
young lady surely used her lance to good effect. And 
there is no braver or more important duty for good 
men and good women than to strike down these assas- 
sins of character. 

EVIL THOUGHTS, 

Zitella Cocke describes the power of evil thoughts 
in a suggestive song entitled "A Pirate Chief." 

O coward soul, human heart, 

Why dost thou shrink? Why dost thou start? 

Alas ! too plain thy cause for fear : 

A Pirate Chief is lurking near. 

Guard well thy gate ; if he should win, 

He lets a thousand robbers in. 



WORMS IN THE BOOKS. 



173 



For Evil Thought ne'er called in vain 
On those who follow in his train ! 

Aye, watch thee well, lest barriers fail ; 
Build higher walls than he may scale 
Who sees thy weakness but to dare 
To compass thee by might and snare ; 
Who notes each rampart, marks each tower, 
That would defy his pirate power, 
And challenges each sentinel 
That guards the fast-shut citadel. 

With cunning speech for virtue meet, 
And guise of beauty's fair deceit ; 
With sweet, persuasive blandishment 
He masks the face of 111 Intent, 
And softly, subtly woos until 
The stalwart warrior, giant Will, 
Inert through many a conflict fought, 
Unbars the door to Evil Thought ! 

Dost hope the bandit horde to stay 
Where once their chief hath won his way? 
Too late the watchman wakes and calls, 
When open gate and crumbling walls 
Have let his hosts of robbers in 
To work their deeds of shame and sin ; 
Brave heart, build high the strong redoubt, 
Which keeps the Pirate Chieftain out ! 

WORMS IN THE BOOKS. 

Bookworms are a species of delicate but destructive 
maggot. The traces of their devastation of rare books, 
which wring the heart of the collector, are common, 
while they are rarely seen in the flesh. Father O'Con- 
nor, an inquisitive lover of books, has studied under 



174 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



the microscope no fewer than seventy-two specimens 
of insects destructive of books, and has given designs 
of many, as well as much curious information con- 
cerning them. But, after all, these worms only eat 
into the paper itself, while the worms that infest a 
great many modern books are in the printed matter 
of the text, and eat into the mind and heart of the 
people who read them. There is no more solemn re- 
sponsibility resting upon pastors and parents and 
teachers than to keep an eye open for the defense of 
youth from the worms in the books. 

THE CARPENTER CHRIST. 

The working man should be quick to take the Hand 
that was rough with the hard usage of toil, and yet 
gave itself gladly to be nailed to the cross for its 
brethren. Archibald MacMechan sings of the toiling 
Christ in his little poem, " His Hand was Eough " : 

His hand was rough and his hand was hard, 
For he wrought in wood, in Nazareth town ; 

With naught of worship, with no regard, 
In the village street he went up and down. 

His hand was rough, but its touch was light, 
As it lay on the eyes of him born blind ; 

Or strake sick folk in its healing might, 
And gave back joy to the hearts that pined. 

His hand was hard, but they spiked it fast 
To the splintering wood of the cursed tree ; 

And he hung in the sight of the world, at last, 
In his shame. And the red blood trickled free. 



CHRIST AND FAILURE. 



175 



FIGHTING AGAINST POVERTY. 

Ex-Secretary of State Day, in giving his experience 
to a friend in Canton, Ohio, as he was about taking up 
his responsibilities as chairman of the Peace Commis- 
sion, spoke of the momentous scene at the White 
House when the peace protocol between the United 
States and Spain was signed. While the great his- 
torical event was passing, Judge Day said his mind 
went back thirty years, to the time he first met Presi- 
dent McKinley. Both had recently come to Canton 
to practise law, and were employed on the opposite 
sides of a case that involved less than twenty dollars. 
It was tried before a country justice of the peace, in 
a blacksmith shop at a distance of many miles from 
Canton, and to save expense the opposing counsel 
drove there in the same buggy. Thirty years later 
they stood together as the chief figures in the diplo- 
matic negotiations that closed a war, one as President 
and the other as Secretary of State. The fight for 
success in every great and strong life is a fight against 
humiliating difficulties that must be conquered by 
prudence and economy, those old and homely virtues 
which every boy and girl must learn anew and prac- 
tise in the building of their own lives. 

CHRIST AND FAILURE* 

It is a comforting thing to know that Christ knows 
all our circumstances, and that in his clear eyes the 
failure of an honest worker is more precious than the 



176 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



success of an untrue man. Eosa Mulholland sings of 
such, failure : 

With empty hands I shall rise to meet him, 
And, when he looks for the fruits of years, 

Nothing have I to lay before him 
But broken efforts and bitter tears. 

Yet when he calls I fain would hasten — 
Mine eyes are dim and their light is gone ; 

And I am as weary as tho I carried 
A burden of beautiful work well done. 

I will fold my empty hands on my bosom, 
Meekly thus in the shape of his cross ; 

And the Lord who made them frail and feeble 
Maybe will pity their strife and loss. 

FOLLY OF FLATTERY. 

In Windsor Castle there is a suite of rooms for the 
use of the Queen's chaplain. A private passage con- 
nects the chaplain's study with the Queen's apart- 
ments, and she frequently repairs there to consult 
him on important matters. One day, as the Queen 
was returning to her apartments after an interview, a 
parrot called out some words in a cross tone of voice 
from its cage in the passage. Failing to understand 
the sounds, the Queen turned to the chaplain and 
asked: "What is the parrot saying?" With much 
embarrassment he replied: "If you please, your Maj- 
esty, I would rather not repeat it." "But what was 
it? " she said. " Something, I fear, your Majesty will 
not like ; therefore I hope your Majesty will excuse 
me from telling it." The Queen's curiosity was now 



EASTER DAY. 



177 



thoroughly aroused, and she said: "Come, I insist." 
The chaplain bowed low and made answer : " Since 
your Majesty insists, the parrot said, 'Go along, you 
ugly old woman ! ' " Queen Victoria laughed heartily 
as she said : " Well, I am glad there is at least one 
voice in the kingdom which is not afraid to tell me 
what it thinks of me." Many preachers of our day 
are making the fatal blunder of preaching to people a 
gospel out of which is carefully eradicated the sharp, 
keen sword of God's Word, which would pierce the 
consciences of their hearers and convict them of sin. 
There never was a time when there was more need of 
Nathan's example in dealing with David, when he de- 
scribed the sin and aroused the sinner, and looked 
him straight in the eye and said : " Thou art the man ! " 



EASTER DAY. 

Christ came to make all things new. Christina 
Kossetti sings beautifully of the burst of spring in 
nature and in the soul. 

Spring bursts to-day, 

For Christ is risen and all the earth's at play. 
Flash forth the sun, 

The rain is over and gone, its work is done. 
Winter is past, 

Sweet spring is come at last, is come at last. 
Bud, fig, and vine, 

And olive, fat with fruit and oil and wine. 

Break forth this morn, 

In roses, thou but yesterday a thorn. 

12 



178 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Uplift thy head, 

Oh, pure white lily through the winter dead. 
Beside your dams 

Leap and rejoice, ye merry-making lambs. 
All herds and flocks 

Kejoice, all beasts of thickets and of rocks. 

Sing, creatures, sing, 

Angels and men and birds and everything. 

All notes of doves 

Fill all our world : this is the tune of loves. 

MORAL COLOR-BLINDNESS* 

"Color-blindness is more common than folks sup- 
pose," said a car-starter on Canal Street, New Orleans, 
the other day. And he continued : " We fellows have 
a first-rate chance to find it out. It's a common thing 
for me to tell a man to take a green car and then see 
him stand stock-still and let it go by. He will swear 
it was blue. The same thing happens with yellow 
cars, which look pink to lots of people. A good many 
of them don't know that there is anything wrong with 
their sight, and think that the trouble is with the 
other fellow. Why, I had a man advise me, not long 
ago, to see a physician because I told him to get on a 
yellow car, which he thought was pink. He warned 
me, in confidence, that I would be discharged if the 
company found out my condition. It's no use argu- 
ing in a case like that, so I thanked him and told him 
that I would. " Annoying as this kind of color-blind- 
ness is, and indeed it would be very dangerous many 
times, it is not of so much importance as moral color- 



A GRACEFUL SETTING. 179 



blindness. Many people are morally color-blind 
through their prejudices. They take the wrong path 
and think they are right. Isaiah said of such peo- 
ple : " Wo unto them that call evil good and good evil ; 
that put darkness for light, and light for darkness ; 
that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter ! " 

WORKER OR PAUPER, "WHICH? 

No man has a right to enjoy the good things of this 
world and make no return for them. The accident 
of inherited money can not save such a man from 
being a pauper. Charlotte Stetson places the duty of 
work very clearly : 

Shall I not work? 

Shall it be said?— "He took from all the world, 
Of its accumulated, countless wealth, 
As much as he could hold, and never gave ! 
Spiritless beggar ! pauper ! parasite ! " 
Life is not long enough to let me work 
As I desire ; but all the years shall hold, 
Shall I pour forth. Perhaps it may be mine 
To do some deed was never done before, 
And clear my obligation to the world. 

A GRACEFUL SETTING. 

Our religion ought to have a graceful setting. We 
should make our goodness attractive to people. There 
is a Scripture admonition which says : " Let not your 
good be evil spoken of." A gentleman paused to buy 
an apple at a push-cart standing by the sidewalk. He 



180 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



dropped a nickel, which fell between the curb and the 
wheel of the cart, an inconvenient place from which 
to recover it. As he stooped to pick it up, the ped- 
dler said: "Don't!" And he handed him a nickel 
from his own pocket. He would pick it up. How 
graceful and gracious that was. It left a sweeter taste 
in the gentleman's mouth than the apple did, tho it 
was a good one. The Christian graces of gentleness 
and politeness and forbearance adorn our religion and 
give us. joy in it. 

LITTLE DEEDS OF KINDNESS, 

The happiness of the world mostly comes, not from 
the great deeds of the giants, but from the little or- 
dinary doings of one-talented people, — the kind of 
thing that is within the reach of every one of us every 
day. Margaret Sangster illustrates this in her poem, 
entitled " A Commonplace Letter " : 

It seemed so little, the thing you did — 

Just to take the pen in your hand 
And send the warm heart's greeting, hid 

'Neath the common two-cent stamp of the land — 
But over the mountains and over the plain 

And away o'er the billowy prairie went 
The small, square letter, to soothe the pain 

Of one who was fretted with discontent. 

She was ill and tired ; the long, hot day 

Had worn itself to the merest shred ; 
The last of the light as it ebbed away, 

Fell on her quivering needle and thread. 
A shadow came flying across the space 

Where the fading sunlight filtered through ; 



LITTLE DEEDS OF KINDNESS. 



There was just the gleam of a sweet young face 
And a voice said, " Here is a letter for you ! " 

The quick tears blurred in a sudden mist, 

But she brushed them away, and then she smiled, 
And you should have seen how she kissed and kissed 

The postmark, just like a little child. 
Why, the name brought back the long ago 

When she dressed in her best of afternoons, 
When she found it a pleasure to sit and sew, 

And her seams were sewed to tripping tunes. 

Poverty, change, and the drudgery 

Of work that goes on without an end 
Had fettered the heart that was light and free, 

Till she'd almost forgotten she had a friend. 
The people at home so seldom write ; 

Her youth and its pleasures lie all behind ; 
She was thinking bitterly but last night 

That out of sight is out of mind ! 

Now, here is your letter ! The old hills break 

Beyond these levels flat and green ; 
She thrills to the thrush as his flute notes wake 

In the vesper hush of the woods serene. 
She sits again in the little church, 

And lifts her voice in the choir once more, 
Or stoops for a four-leaved clover to search 

In the grass that ripples up to the door. 

It was very little it meant for you — 

An hour at best when the day was done — 
But the words you sent rang sweet and true, 

And they carried comfort and cheer to one 
Who was needing to feel a clasping hand, 

And to hear the voices she used to hear ; 
And the little letter — the breadth of the land — 

Was the carrier-dove that brought home near. 



182 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



NEVER GIVE UP. 

If your motive is high enough and you are doing 
honest work worthy of being crowned, then never de- 
spair. Lady Butler, the artist, whose "Roll-Call" 
made her famous, sums up the early vicissitudes of 
that picture thus : "Rejected and damaged; rejected; 
accepted and skied.' 7 Many a man has been rejected 
and damaged ; but, refusing to accept the verdict, has 
gone on, only to be rejected again ; but stedf astly per- 
severing, he has been finally accepted, and found his 
place in the skies. 

THE SOUL'S CONVERSION. 

The miracle of the soul's conversion, in the marvel- 
ous transformation wrought in all the faculties of the 
being, is strongly set forth in a hymn written by Rev. 
William Kidd Matson : 

Lord, I was blind : I could not see 

In thy marred visage any grace ; 

But now the beauty of thy face 
In radiant vision dawns on me. 

Lord, I was deaf : I could not hear 

The thrilling music of thy voice ; 

But now I hear thee and rejoice, 
And all thy uttered words are dear. 

Lord, I was dumb : I could not speak 

The grace and glory of thy name ; 

But now, as touched with living flame, 
My lips thine eager praises wake. 



HOW TO ENJOY RELIGION. 183 



Lord, I was dead : I could not stir 

My lifeless soul to come to thee ; 

But now since thou hast quickened me, 
I rise from sin's dark sepulcher. 

Lord, thou hast made the blind to see, 
The deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, 
The dead to live ; and lo, I break 

The chains of my captivity. 

HOW TO ENJOY RELIGION, 

The people that enjoy religion most are those who 
are seeking, not for enjoyment, but to accomplish a 
great and good purpose. Paul du Chaillu, speaking, 
in Boston, of the hardships through which he had 
passed in the course of his African explorations, 
stated that while he was in the forest three years he 
ate five pounds of quinin, sometimes one hundred and 
fifty grains a day. He had had to submit to all sorts 
of unique and disagreeable experiences. He, how- 
ever, advised young men to rough it when they could. 
He had eaten snakes, monkeys, elephant meat, and a 
little of everything, but had never had a dyspeptic 
symptom in his life. The reason this great traveler 
could do this was that his mind was buoyed up with 
another purpose, a purpose large enough to make a 
diet of snakes seem a very insignificant factor. So 
if you will fill a man with the great purpose of pleas- 
ing God, of being a friend and disciple of J esus Christ, 
of helping to cure the world's sorrows, he will rejoice 
in the midst of trials and hardships, and the real abid- 
ing joy of his life no combination of evil circumstances 
will be able to take from him. 



184 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



ALL IN ALL. 

God is all in all to the sincere Christian. In him 
we have our protection, our strength, our joy, our 
everything. St. Patrick, the patron saint of the 
Irish, left one hymn which has come down to us. 
In the verses which I quote he sets forth in a stri- 
king manner the great truth that our all in all is from 
God: 

I bind myself to-day — 

The power of God to guide me, 

The might of God to uphold me, 

The wisdom of God to teach me, 

The eye of God to watch over me, 

The ear of God to hear me, 

The word of God to give me speech, 

The hand of God to protect me, 

The way of God to go before me, 

The shield of God to shelter me, 

The host of God to defend me, 

Against the snares of demons, 

Against the temptations of vices, 

Against the lusts of nature, 

Against every man who meditates injury to me, 
Whether far or near, 
With few or with many. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STANDPOINT. 

Mr. Zangwill, the brilliant Hebrew novelist, re- 
cently said that a baby is a joy to its mother, an heir 
to its father, a charge to its nurse, a soul to the clergy- 
man who baptizes it, a new biological specimen to the 
physician, a new customer to the shopkeeper, and a 



THE AMBITION OF A HUMAN ANIMAL. 185 



nuisance to the neighbors. This characterization sug- 
gests how important it is to take into account the 
standpoint of observation in measuring the value of 
the opinions of people on any given subject. 

THE MOST LASTING MONUMENT, 

Sarah K. Bolton, in her poem entitled " The En- 
during," brings out in strong relief the great truth 
that the touching of a child with sympathy, thus lift- 
ing it up into goodness, insures a far more lasting 
monument than any material achievement. 

He built a house ; time laid it in the dust. 

He wrote a book ; its title now forgot. 

He ruled a city, but his name is not 

On any tablet graven, or where rust 

Can gather from disuse, or marble bust. 

He took a child from out a wretched cot, 

Who on the State dishonor might have brought, 

And reared him to the Christian's hope and trust. 

The boy, to manhood grown, became a light 

To many souls, and preached for human need 

The wondrous love of the Omnipotent. 

The work has multiplied like stars at night 

When darkness deepens. Every noble deed 

Lasts longer than a granite monument. 

THE AMBITION OF A HUMAN ANIMAL. 

A certain United States Senator is reported to have 
said to a party of friends recently : " If I had plenty 
of money, I'd have music played at all of my meals, 
and get cigars made at $50 a hundred. Those are 
two luxuries I would most surely indulge myself in. 



186 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



I'd have the music played by a small orchestra, say a 
horn and two or three violins and a flute and a bass 
viol, and I'd have it play soft, harmonious airs while 
I ate; and now and then I'd have some vocal music 
given by colored voices. I'd have them sing such 
things as 'When the Watermelon Hangs on the Vine.' 
That's a song calculated to inspire the most sluggish 
appetite." What a high and noble ambition for a 
Senator of the United. States! But he has lots of 
company — men and women to whom wealth and vast 
resources mean only ingenious methods of spurring a 
jaded and sluggish appetite to feed on delicacies for 
the stomach. Nothing great or noble ever comes from 
people inspired by such motives. 

THE MAN BEHIND THE "WORDS* 

Words are only things of which to make a diction- 
ary until earnestness, love, a soul, a character get be- 
hind them, and then they may become more powerful 
than flashing bayonets, mightier than the scepter of a 
king, tenderer than tears, more beautiful than flowers. 
Eobert Louis Stevenson brings out the thought of the 
importance of the man behind the words in his poem 
entitled, "Bright Is the Ring of Words " : 

Bright is the ring of words 

When the right man rings them, 
Fair the fall of songs 

When the singer sings them. 
Still they are caroled and said — 

On wings they are carried — 
After the singer is dead 

And the maker buried. 



OUR FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST. 187 



FROM POVERTY TO RICHES. 

An old man who had become so frail that he was 
no longer able to earn his own living, and had gone 
to the poorhouse some months before, recently re- 
ceived word from Alaska that his son had made a 
fortune in the Alaskan gold-fields and had made a 
will in his father's favor. Soon after making the will 
the boy had been drowned, and the father became the 
heir to a large fortune. The old man is very happy 
at the prospect, and expects soon to return to Ireland,, 
where he was born, and where he has many friends, 
and live in comfort and luxury for the rest of his life. 
That will be quite a change from the poorhouse. But 
the change to this man will not be so great as is ex- 
perienced by one who, spiritually bankrupt and im- 
poverished, accepts the riches of forgiveness and good- 
ness which are offered to us by Jesus Christ. Such an 
one throws off his rags and bondage of evil habits 
and is clothed upon with purity and righteousness. 
Strange that any one will ever live in the poorhouse 
of sin when he might dwell amid the luxury of a good 
conscience and a hopeful heart. 

OUR FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST. 

Whatever our views may be about the kind of imi- 
tation of Christ it is wholesome and profitable for us 
to make, there can be no doubt that it is not only our 
i duty but our blessed privilege to live daily in f ellow- 
1 ship with Jesus. Helen Beard, in her poem entitled, 
"If Christ Should Come To-Day, " very keenly brings 



188 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



home the question as to whether this fellowship ex- 
ists or not : 

If Christ should come to-day ! 
If we could find him on the broad highway 

Or city street, 
Oh, would we crowd to touch his garments' hem, 

Or kiss his feet? 

If he should come to-day ! 
The Prince of Peace amidst the clang of war 

And battle heat ; 
Oh, would we haste to lay our weapons down 

Before his feet? 

If he should come to-day ! 
Above all honors and the paltry things 

That men call great 
Is he enshrined, and have we kept our faith 

Inviolate? 

O gentle, pitying Christ ! 
Delay thy coming to the weary soul, 

So sick of sin ; 
Draw close thy cords of love until his heart 

Shall take thee in. 

Then come at morn or eve ! 
Whether in manhood, youth, or feeble age, 

Thy visit fall ; 
To him who loves thee all is well, since Christ 

Is all in all. 

SOBRIETY AND HEALTH. 

It is said that the honor of being the most health- 
ful town in the United States, and perhaps in the 
world, belongs to Millerstown, Pa. The death-rate, 
according to the latest statistics issued from Washing- 



THE BEST WINE LAST. 



189 



ton, gives Millerstown but one in every one thousand 
inhabitants. The average of deaths for the large towns 
and cities in the United States is from ten to twenty 
and even more in every thousand. Now, if I were to 
say that Millerstown has more liquor-saloons in pro- 
portion to the population than any other town in the 
State, after what I have said about its health, no one 
would believe it. And they would do well in their 
disbelief, for the statement is that intoxicating liquors 
are almost an unknown quantity in the town. Strange 
that so many towns and cities should license the estab- 
lishment of what are practically murder-mills within 
their limits. 

THE BEST WINE LAST, 

At the great feast where Christ turned the water 
into wine, they had the best at the last of the feast. 
Christianity is always doing that. That is the differ- 
ence between earthly pleasures and the pleasure that 
follows on doing right. The world gives the best 
first, but God gives the best last. Ella Wheeler Wil- 
cox illustrates this in her poem entitled, "Duty's 
Path " : 

Out from the harbor of youth's bay 

There leads the path of pleasure ; 
With eager steps we walk that way 

To brim joy's largest measure. 
But when with morn's departing beam 

Goes youth's last precious minute, 
We sigh, " 'Twas but a fevered dream — 

There's nothing in it." 



190 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Then on our vision dawns afar 

The goal of glory, gleaming 
Like some great radiant solar star, 

And sets us longing, dreaming. 
Forgetting all things left behind, 

We strain each nerve to win it, 
But when 'tis ours, alas ! we find 

There's nothing in it. 

We turn our sad, reluctant gaze 

Upon the path of duty ; 
Its barren, uninviting ways 

Are void of bloom and beauty. 
Yet in that road, tho dark and cold 

It seems as we begin it, 
As we press on, lo ! we behold 

There's heaven in it. 

THE LOCK-STEP OF SIN. 

When a man has been in state prison for some 
years, that fact is apparent, to a skilled observer, in 
his walk. No matter how well he may be dressed, 
how prosperous he may be, how sincerely he may have 
turned over a new leaf, his gait in moments of self- 
forgetfulness betrays him. It is the "lock-step." 
Did you ever see a long line of men in coarse and 
striped prison garb performing this parody of free 
motion? Each man's hands rest on the shoulders of 
the man in front, the crook of his knee fits the crook 
in the man before him and behind him. A step is 
necessarily short; the foot shuffles along the stone 
floor. There is no individuality of motion ; all must 
step precisely alike. There is an exaggerated swing 
of the shoulders, rhythmic with the " swish, swish, 



REASON FOR CHARITY. 



191 



swish. " of the dragging feet upon the floor. So some- 
times it happens that a free man walking in deep 
thought along a city street will swing his shoulders to 
the short, quick, low-swung step of his feet and the 
familiar rhythm of the " swish, swish, swish. " he used 
to hear. Then all at once he will shake his head and 
straighten his shoulders as if to cast off an ugly dream, 
and walk as others do. Sin leaves its mark on men; 
the scar is there — the fatal register of an evil habit ; 
the mark is on body and mind and heart. Take care, 
take care, that you do not get into the " lock- step " of 
an evil habit ! 

REASON FOR CHARITY. 

It is said that a saintly man, upon seeing an officer 
taking a poor, wretched criminal through the streets, 
exclaimed : "I should be in his place but for the grace 
of God." How charitable such thoughts ought to 
make us when we judge pthers. We who have been 
hedged about by nurturing circumstances which have 
made it easy for us to be good, ought not only to thank 
God for our preservation, but we ought to have great 
charity and sympathy for those who have been differ- 
ently placed. Elizabeth Perkins, in a poem entitled 
"Environments," brings out the thought in a striking 
picture : 

A lily grew in a garden, far 

From the dust of the city street. 
It had no dream that the universe 

Held aught less pure and sweet 
Than its virgin self ; so chaste was it, 

So perfect its retreat. 



192 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



When night came down the lily looked 
In the face of the stars and smiled ; 

Then went to sleep — to the sleep of death, 
As the soul of a little child 

Goes back to the clasp of the Father-soul, 
Untouched and undefiled. 

A lily bloomed on the highway, close 
To the tread of the sweeping throng ; 

It bore the gaze of a hundred eyes 
Where burned the flame of wrong ; 

And one came by who tore its heart 
With a ruthless hand and strong. 

It caught no glimpse of a garden fair, 

It knew no other name 
For a world that used and bruised it so 

Than a world of sin and shame ; 
And hopeless, crushed, its spirit passed 

As the evening shadows came. 

And who can say but the sheltered one 

A sullied flower had been 
Had its home been out on the highway, close 

To the path of shame and sin? 
And the other forever angel- white 

Had it blossomed safe within? 

APFEARANCES DECEPTIVE, 

A San Francisco journalist was riding in a street- 
car in that city beside an army officer. Two men sit- 
ting across from them eyed the army officer opposite 
with ill-concealed disfavor. Finally one of them re- 
marked to his companion, a tall man : " These mon- 
keys under shoulder-straps give me the wearies." 
"Me too." "They take themselves seriously," con- 
tinued the small man. " If we had more real officers 



GOD'S PROVIDENCE. 



193 



and fewer gilt-upholstered peacocks in the Philip- 
pines, the fighting of the men of the line would count 
for more. I never see one strutting the street but 
what I want to kick his useless carcass." "Same 
here," said the tall man. "There's a sample of him 
over there," indicating the officer opposite, for whose 
benefit the conversation was being carried on. " The 
best he could command would be a cash-boy." 
"Sure," said the small man, with a contemptuous 
stare at the shoulder-straps. "You're getting it 
pretty hard," smiled the newspaper man who was 
seated by the officer. "Yes, pretty tough." "May 
I ask your name? " "Funston." A blush came into 
the faces across the car as they heard the name, and 
they managed to get away at the next street corner. 
It is never safe to judge any man or woman by size 
or by the outward splendor of appearance — the mind 
and heart are of such infinitely greater importance in 
making manhood and womanhood, and outward ap- 
pearances are so often deceptive. 

GOD'S PROVIDENCE. 

That God means the same to us in laughter and in 
tears, in prosperity and in adversity, and that both 
paths lead home to heaven if we are submissive to the 
will of God, Edith Bradt suggests in her little poem 
"Mispah": 

It may be mine 

To drink at Marah's well ; 
It may be thine 

In tents of ease to dwell ; 

13 



194 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



And yet between 

His loving care shall be ; 
And he will e'en 

Keep watch 'twixt me and thee. 

It shall be mine 

To reach the promised land ; 
It shall be thine 

On that bright shore to stand ; 
The path is steep 

For weary feet to roam ; 
But He will keep 

His watch, and bring us home. 

MORAL COURAGE. 

An old navy officer, who has been for many years a 
shipmate of Bear-Admiral Sampson, tells this story of 
him: "I have never doubted Sampson's courage since 
the first cruise I made with him. We were wardroom 
officers together. The first night aboard ship, when 
the hour arrived for ' piping down , and we turned in, 
there were several officers sitting around the wardroom 
table indulging in some innocent merriment. I was 
taught to say my prayers before going to bed at night, 
but I confess I lacked the courage to kneel down in 
the presence of my shipmates and pray. It was warm 
weather, and our stateroom doors opened into the 
wardroom. Then it was that Sampson displayed the 
moral courage which forever afterward impressed me. 
When he was ready to turn in, he knelt down by his 
berth and prayed. A stillness came over the ward- 
room immediately, and I concluded that if Sampson 
had the courage to say his prayers in the presence of 



CHRIST AT THE DOOR. 



195 



his shipmates, I could do likewise, so I have never 
hesitated since to pray before turning in." That 
sort of moral courage indicates what Paul must have 
meant when he speaks about the body being kept as 
the temple of the Lord. Such a temple never fails to 
awaken divine worship in others who live under the 
shadow of its influence. 

CHRIST AT THE DOOR. 

No picture in all the New Testament is more tender 
in its suggestion than that which represents Jesus as 
standing knocking for admittance at the door of the 
heart. Harriet Beecher Stowe, after studying Hol- 
man Hunt's picture of that scene which he called 
"The Light of the World, " went away to write a very 
tender poem entitled, " Knocking, Ever Knocking " : 

Knocking, knocking, ever knocking ! 

Who is there? 
'Tis a Pilgrim, strange and kingly, 
Never such was seen before ; 
Ah, sweet soul, for such a wonder 
Undo the door. 

No ! that door is hard to open ; 
Hinges rusty, latch is broken, 

Bid him go. 
Wherefore with that knocking dreary 
Scare the sleep from one so weary? 
Say him, No. 

Knocking, knocking, ever knocking? 

What ! Still there? 
O sweet soul, but once behold him 
With the glory-crowned hair ; 



196 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



And those eyes, so strange and tender, 

Waiting there ; 
Open ! Open ! Once behold him — 

Him, so fair ! 

Did she open? Doth she? Will she? 
So, as wondering we behold, 
Grows the picture to a sign, 
Pressed upon your soul and mine ; 
For in every breast that liveth 
Is that strange, mysterious door ; 
Tho forsaken and betangled, 
Ivy-gnarled and weed-bejangled, 
Dusty, rusty, and forgotten, — 
There the pierced hand still knocketh, 
And with ever-patient watching, 
With the sad eyes true and tender, 
With the glory-crowndd hair, — 
Still a God is waiting there. 

DANGEROUS ASSOCIATIONS. 

Dr. Schumann, a Belgian naturalist and explorer, 
was collecting specimens of plants and animals in 
Zacatecas, and at one time visited some old Toltec 
ruins. He arrived late at night and determined to 
camp out. He lit a fire to get his supper, after which 
he spread his blankets and lay down. In the morn- 
ing when he woke he threw his hand outside of the 
blanket and it almost touched a great poisonous rat- 
tlesnake. He escaped by the merest chance. Look- 
ing toward his feet, what was his astonishment to see 
rattlesnakes all over the blanket. There were no less 
than six large serpents besides the one that had 
missed his hand. The doctor killed the snakes and 



GROWTH AND REST. 



197 



nailed them to the adobe wall, with his card on each. 
There are many young men who are camping out in 
their daily associations in as dangerous quarters as 
that. An evil-minded friend often has fangs more 
poisonous than a Mexican rattlesnake. 

GROWTH AND REST. 

Growing children and growing animals require a 
great deal of sleep and rest ; but men and women are 
always children while in this world in reference to 
their higher life, and there can be no great spiritual 
growth unless there be time for brooding and medita- 
tion. Mrs. Farningham, in a beautiful little poem en- 
titled "Kest a While," sets forth the truth that to rest 
when we are weary is as certainly a duty as to work 
when we are strong : 

Come ye apart 

From off the toilsome road, 
And spend a quiet hour, 

Alone with God. 

Put off the troubled thought, 

The weight of care, 
Let the soul's peace 

Be your unspoken prayer. 

A couch of heather 

For your sleep is spread, 
A scented pillow 

For the weary head. 

Lie down and slumber, 

Let the world go on 
A while without you 

As it oft has gone. 



198 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Take time for meditation, 

Time for dreams ; 
See how clouds travel, 

How the river gleams, 

How the flowers worship, 

And the golden corn 
Whispers God's praises 

Eventide and morn. 

To work for God is good, 

But not the best ; 
Hearts grow most strong in him 

Through love and rest. 



NESTING IN A WRECK. 

Seven-Mile Beach, on the Cape May county coast 
of New Jersey, has always been the nesting-place of 
many ospreys or fish-hawks. They never fail to 
come back to their island home every spring, and they 
usually make their appearance about the first week in 
May. They are all rather eccentric in their choice of 
nesting-places, but the oddest of all places has been 
chosen by a pair of these birds at Stone Harbor. A 
few years ago a gentleman had occasion to visit that 
resort, and while there he went down to the beach to 
take a look at the wreck of a vessel that was driven 
ashore during the gale of December 27, 1895. As he 
approached the wreck, which lies several hundred 
yards from shore, right in the midst of a long line of 
white-cap breakers, he was surprised to see a huge 
mass of sticks and seaweed fastened in the crosstrees 
of the mizzenmast. Pretty soon an osprey made its 



THE FACES WATCHING FOR US. 199 



appearance and fixed itself snugly on the nest, for 
such it proved to be. As he watched, the mate of the 
bird on the nest came flying in from the sea, carrying 
a fish in its talons. It perched on the crosstrees of 
the foremast and proceeded to enjoy its dinner. The 
birds had eggs, and two, perhaps three, little os- 
preys were probably hatched in their oddly located 
home, forty feet above the white-cap breakers. This 
is interesting, but suggests a sadder nesting-place. 
Many people have built their life-nest in a wreck. 
The dissipation and sin of parents often compel their 
children to nest all their lives in a wreck which goes 
to pieces prematurely, with the work they ought to 
have performed only half accomplished. 

THE FACES WATCHING FOR US. 

It is delightful when we are going home at night 
to feel that some one is waiting for us with heart and 
face full of welcome. One by one these welcoming 
faces pass across to the other side and wait for us 
there. It is a glorious thing to come toward the sun- 
set with the deep abiding trust that there are many 
welcoming faces at the gate to meet us. How many 
will have tender hearts as they read this mother's 
poem entitled, "The Gate at the Head of the 
Stair " : 

Some things in our house have lost their use — 

We meet them everywhere — 
And one of the saddest and sweetest to me 

Is the gate at the head of the stair. 



200 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



So often I ran to close the gate 

That my baby might not fall, 
As toddling along on uncertain feet 

He followed me through the hall. 

And often, when returning home, 

I forgot my trouble and care 
When I heard his laugh and saw his face 

By the gate at the head of the stair. 

And now, with weary, longing heart, 

I climb the tedious stair, 
The gate is open — I look in vain, 

My baby is not there. 

But I love to think when life's journey ends 

In that heavenly dwelling-place, 
I shall find to welcome me at the gate 

My baby's radiant face. 

A MONEY-MAKING MACHINE. 

Bailroad people have an arrangement by which 
they can register the speed of a train. It looks like 
a steam-gage and is connected with the axle, so that 
the pointer registers the number of revolutions every 
minute. There are so many revolutions to the mile, 
and by an ingenious arrangement the number of miles 
an hour is shown upon the dial. The apparatus is ex- 
pensive as well as delicate. The late Jay Gould was 
one of the first to adopt it, and shortly after a register 
was placed in his private car a certain millionaire 
friend of his was making a journey with him and in- 
quired what it was. Mr. Gould explained the mech- 
anism and the usefulness of the machine with great 
care. The guest was silent for a moment, and then 



THE POWER OF IMAGINATION. 



201 



looking up inquired : " Does it earn anything? " " No, 
I think not," said Mr. Gould, with a smile. "Does 
it save anything? " " No. " " Then I would not have 
it in my car. n Such men are only human money- 
making machines. One of those slot-machines where 
you put in a nickel and get chewing-gum has as much 
of the milk of human kindness and fellowship as is 
left in their dried-up hearts. When money does that 
for a man, it is an unspeakable curse to him. Money 
is worse than valueless to us when it gets to be our 
master. 

THE ATTRACTION OF LOVE. 

Nothing draws men and women to the Christian 
church with so irresistible a magnetism as a loving 
spirit among its members. Christina Eossetti sug- 
gests this attraction of love in these delicate lines : 

O ye who taste that Love is sweet, 
Set waymarks for the doubtful feet 
That stumble on in search of it. 

Sing notes of love, that some who hear 
Far off, inert, may lend an ear, 
Rise up and wonder, and draw near. 

Lead lives of love, that others who 
Behold your lives may kindle too 
With love, and cast their lots with you. 

THE POWER OF IMAGINATION. 

The influence of the imagination is a factor which 
physicians have to reckon with very largely. And in 
the minor ailments of life the most successful practi- 



202 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



tioner is lie who possesses the faculty of inspiring 
confidence in himself to begin with, and then in the 
treatment he advises. A recent number of The 
Psychological Review relates an interesting experi- 
ment made by Mr. Slosson, with the view of demon- 
strating how easily this faculty can be called into 
play. In the course of a popular lecture he presented 
to his audience a bottle containing distilled water, 
which he uncorked with elaborate precautions, and 
then, watch in hand, asked those present to indicate 
the exact moment at which the peculiar odor was per- 
ceived by them. Within fifteen seconds those imme- 
diately in front of him held up their hands, and within 
forty seconds those at the other end of the room de- 
clared that they distinctly perceived the odor. There 
was an obstinate minority, who stoutly declared their 
inability to detect any odor ; but Mr. Slosson believes 
that many more would have given in had he not been 
compelled to bring the experiment to a close within a 
minute of opening the bottle, because several persons 
in the front rank found the odor so powerful that they 
hastily quitted the lecture-room. It would have been 
interesting to know the attitude of the audience on 
learning the liberty that had been taken with their 
imagination ; but on this point, unfortunately, the re- 
port is silent. The imagination can never be left out 
of account in dealing with life. Paul says that it is 
the great work of Christianity to cast down " evil im- 
aginations." If we keep the imagination clean and 
pure, we destroy the nesting-place of evil thoughts 
and wicked deeds. 



THE MUSIC OF LIFE. 



203 



TRIALS INTENSIFY HAPPINESS. 

There are great compensations in the hardships 
and trials of life. The man who has never been hun- 
gry knows nothing of the real joy of taking food. 
The man who has never really suffered from thirst 
does not know how to thank God for water. And so 
it is in every realm of life that the struggle or the 
chase adds to the enjoyment of achievement. Helen 
Gray Cone sings : 

There is no calm like that when storm is done ; 

There is no pleasure keen as pain's release ; 

There is no joy that lies so deep as peace, 
No peace so deep as that by struggle won. 

THE MUSIC OF LIFE. 

James Lane Allen, in "A Kentucky Cardinal," 
speaking of the books on the shelves of the library, 
says : " Every volume there is an instrument which 
some melodist of the mind created and set vibrating 
with music, as a flower shakes out its perfume or a 
star shakes out its light. Only listen, and they soothe 
all care, as tho the silken-soft leaves of poppies had 
been made vocal and poured into the ear." If that is 
true of a library of books, how much more true of a 
church full of men and women whose memories are 
like phonographs that have been gathering up the 
notes of sorrow and of joy, of love and hate, of vic- 
tory and defeat, from the struggles and trials of their 
lives. Nothing is so interesting, nothing so impor- 
tant, as the individual personality. How to touch 



204 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



each life so as to bring out the music that shall add 
to the great choir of humanity in voicing thanksgiving 
to God and inspiring enthusiasm among men, is the 
greatest problem of the preacher, or of the leader in 
any good cause. 

THE NEW YEAR, - 

Some poet whose name is unknown to me has drawn 
a striking picture of God's mercy in giving us ever and 
anon the new chance. The new year forms to many 
such an epoch of heaven's grace : 

He came to my desk with a quivering lip — 

The lesson was done : 
"Dear teacher, I want a new leaf," he said ; 

"I have spoiled this one." 
In place of the leaf, so stained and blotted, 
I gave him a new one, all unspotted, 

And into his sad eyes smiled — 

"Do better now, my child." 

I went to the throne with a quivering soul — 

The old year was done : 
"Dear Father, hast thou a new leaf for me? 

I have spoiled this one." 
He took the old leaf, stained and blotted, 
And gave me a new one, all unspotted ; 

And into my sad heart smiled— 

"Do better now, my child." 

ELECTRICITY IN THE HIVES. 

What has been called the " pleasant occupation of 
hiving bees " — a sentence fraught with more or less 
sarcasm — has been made even more pleasant by an 
electric invention, which obviates the necessity of 



GOD 'S UNBROKEN REIGN. 205 



keeping a watch, on the hives at swarming- time. The 
basis of the apparatus is the conversion of the wing 
motion of the swarm into power. As the bees swarm 
out, they cause two small, easy-swinging doors to open 
outward. A little hammer, which rests upon these 
doors when closed and is connected with a battery, 
drops, as the doors swing open, upon a small metal 
leaf, and the electrical connection thus effected rings 
a bell in the bee-grower's house. I know some 
churches which need closer electrical connection with 
the great heart of Christ, who is the Captain and the 
Leader of all reform hosts. When we begin to swarm 
and use our wings to seek after honey in noble work, 
we are always brought into connection with him. 
Don't forget to use your wings. 



GOD'S UNBROKEN REIGN. 

Some people are so anxious to look out for their 
children after they themselves are dead as to suggest 
that they must think God will abdicate his throne at 
the same time they die. It is pitiful to see men who 
have fought their own way in the world, and who will 
confess that the greatest blessing God has given them 
has come from having to rely on themselves, trying 
to so hedge their own children about that they will 
never have any chance to enjoy that which has been a 
blessing to themselves. Surely the Christian father 
has a right, having done the best he can, to trust his 
children and every other interest to the hands of the 
same God who has led and guided and protected him. 



206 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Longfellow has a very striking little poem on this sub- 
ject : 

I said unto myself, If I were dead, 

What would befall these children? What would be 

Their fate, who now are looking up to me 
For help and furtherance? Their lives, I said, 
Would be a volume wherein I have read 

But the first chapters, and no longer see 

To read the rest of their dear history, 
So full of beauty and so full of dread. — 
Be comforted ; the world is very old, 

And generations pass, as they have passed, 
A troop of shadows moving with the sun ; 
Thousands of times has the old tale been told ; 

The world belongs to those who come the last, 
They will find hope and strength as we have done. 



A TELL-TALE CONSCIENCE. 

The story is told of Aaron Burr that he was once 
defending a man who was charged with murder. 
When Burr addressed the jury, it was night. The 
guilty man was in the room. He had been the prin- 
cipal witness for the prosecution, but Burr had learned 
that this witness was the assassin. In closing his ad- 
dress for his client Burr picked up two lighted can- 
dles from the table, and holding them in the face of 
the witness, exclaimed : " Gentlemen of the jury, there 
is nature's verdict. Now write yours." The witness 
was so overwhelmed by his guilty conscience and with 
amazement that he fled in terror from the room. 
There is Scripture, as true now as it was in ancient 
times : "Be sure your sin will find you out." 



THE TREADMILL OF FASHION. 207 



REST IN ACTION. 

The sublimest peace is in the heart of the storm. 
This is what Paul means when he talks about a life 
"hid with Christ in God." Lucy Fletcher has the 
same thought in her poem entitled, "True Best." 

God sends sometimes a stillness in our life, 

The bivouac, the sleep, 
When on the silent battlefield the strife 

Is hushed in slumber deep ; 
When wearied hearts, exhausted, sink to rest, 
Remembering nor the struggle nor the quest. 

He giveth rest more perfect, pure and true 

While we his burden bear ; 
It springeth not from parted pain, but through 

The accepted blessing there ; 
The lesson pondered o'er with thoughtful eyes, 
The faith that sees iD all a meaning wise. 

Deep in the heart of pain God's hand hath set 

A hidden rest and bliss ; 
Take as his gift the pain, the gift brings yet 

A truer happiness. 
God's voice speaks through it all the high behest 
That bids his people enter into rest. 

THE TREADMILL OF FASHION. 

Not long ago The Ram's Horn had a cartoon in 
which the figure represents a treadmill. Planks in the 
tramping-apron are labeled: "Cards," "Receptions," 
"Calling," "Ball," "Shopping," "Dressing," "Car- 
riage Eide," "Theater Party," "Dinner Party," 
" Opera, " " Masquerade, " and so on. And on this end- 



208 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



less tramping-apron is a fashionably dressed lady, 
tramping her best to keep up with the revolutions of 
the mill, while down at the side is her husband, hard 
at work shoveling money into the fire-box to make 
steam to keep the treadmill going. The lesson is very 
significant. There are multitudes of people who are 
working harder doing nothing but keep up with the 
fashion than they would have to work in order to 
be of great usefulness and blessing to the world. 
Nobody is to be more pitied than the miserable slaves 
of fashion who tramp up and down all their lives on 
the treadmill and at last utter the despairing and dis- 
gusted cry of Solomon : " All is vanity and vexation 
of spirit." 

PRAYER AND WORKS. 

Frederick Douglass used to say that he prayed for 
freedom a good while without seeing any signs of an 
answer; but when he took to his heels, and, as he 
prayed, ran for the North, he drew every hour nearer 
to liberty. The same truth is suggested by Mr. S. E. 
Kiser in " The Man Who Longed to Lead " : 

There was a man who prayed 

For wisdom that he might 
Sway men from sinful ways 

And lead them in the light. 
Each night he knelt and asked the Lord 
To let him guide the sinful horde, 
And every day he rose again 

To idly drift along, 
One of the many common men 

Who form the common throng. 



THE SPUR OF LOVE. 



209 



Year after year he prayed 

For worldly strength to lead ; 
Year after year the Lord 

He worshiped failed to heed ; 
His prayer for leadership and light 
He rattled off by rote each night, 
And in the morning rose again 

To merely drift along, 
One of the many common men 

Who form the common throng. 

One day the man who longed 

To lead in men's affairs 
Resolved that he would add 

Hard work unto his prayers ; 
By day he strove with all his might, 
He knelt and prayed for help at night, 
And God gave ear and aid, for ther) 

He ceased to drift along 
A cipher with his fellow men, 

But came to lead the throng. 

THE SPUR OF LOVE. 

Bishop Bandolph S. Foster, in an address to a com- 
pany of ministers in Buffalo, speaking of his own de- 
nomination and of the need for greater results in the 
conversion of the world to Christ and what was nec- 
essary in order to bring it about, said : " The fault of 
the Methodists is laziness. They have resources and 
men and money. All they need is a spur." I pre- 
sume thoughtful men in other denominations would 
accept that as a pertinent criticism on the Christian 
churches generally. The only way we can get the 
" spur 99 is by meditating on the sacrifice of Jesus 
14 



210 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Christ, made in our behalf, until our gratitude and 
love and appreciation of his love shall spur us to seek 
after and save our brethren who are also the subjects 
of his deathless love. 

HE DIED FOR ME. 

We have not felt the pathos or the love of the cross 
of Christ unless our personal relation to it has come 
home to our hearts. An unknown English poet brings 
this out strongly in " The Three Crosses " : 

Three crosses stood grimly side by side 

On the hill of Calvary ; 
On each a suffering man had died ; 

Two for their crimes, the other for me. 

Like a lamb they led Him out to die 

From the shades of Gethsemane ; 
He uttered no moan, no bitter cry ; 

'Twas love that moved him to die for me. 

On the central cross they nailed my Friend, 

To languish in agony ; 
He bore it all to the bitter end, 

Oh, wonderful love, he died for me. 

Oh, thanks for the love that brought him down ; 

Love fathomless, like the sea. 
His brow was pierced by a thorny crown, 

That a crown of life might be given me. 

THE RAIMENT OF THE SOUL. 

The Empress of Eussia received as a wedding gift 
from the ladies of Orenburg, a town in Southeastern 
Eussia, a most wonderful shawl. The shawl was 



A LIFE OF TRUST. 



211 



sent to the Empress in a wooden chest with silver 
locks and hinges, the outside being embellished with 
designs of spears, turbans, whips, etc., in a ground of 
blue enamel, this being the color of the Cossack uni- 
form. On the inside of the box a gracefully worded 
inscription begged the Empress to accept the gift 
from " her faithful and devoted subjects. " The shawl 
when spread out is about ten yards square, but it is 
so exquisitely fine that it can be passed through a 
finger-ring, and when folded up makes a parcel only 
a very few inches square. It is not only curious, but 
exceedingly valuable. It is not, however, so delicate 
or valuable as the invisible raiment of character which 
clothes the soul. A garment made of the Christian 
graces, tho invisible to the outward eye, adorns the 
soul with imperishable spiritual beauty. 

A LIFE OF TRUST. 

We must each oftentimes walk by faith and not by 
sight. Yet old as that is in our creeds, we need to 
say it over again and again to ourselves. Gertrude 
Curtis, in her " Song of Trust,' 7 puts it in a very com- 
forting way : 

I can not always see the way that leads 

To heights above ; 
I sometimes quite forget He leads me on 

With hand of love ; 
But yet I know the path must lead me to 

Immanuel's land, 
And when I reach life's summit, I shall know 

And understand. 



212 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



I can not always trace the onward course 

My ship must take ; 
But, looking backward, I behold afar 

Its shining wake, 
Illumined with God's light of love ; and so 

I onward go, 
In perfect trust that he who holds the helm 

The course must know. 

I cannot always see the plan on which 

He builds my life ; 
For oft the sound of hammers, blow on blow, 

The noise of strife, 
Confuse me till I quite forget he knows 

And oversees, 
And that in all details with his good plan 

My life agrees. 

I can not always know and understand 

The Master's rule ; 
I can not always do the tasks he gives 

In life's hard school ; 
But I am learning with his help to solve 

Them one by one ; 
And, when I can not understand, to say 

"Thy will be done!" 

A BEAUTIFUL REMEMBRANCE. 

When Charles II. was king of England, he sent 
his wife Catharine to Oxford, bidding her not to reap- 
pear in St. J ames for a whole year. The warden of 
Merton entertained the Queen during the time, and 
the rooms which she occupied in the quadrangle are 
still shown. One day, as she sat working at the open 
window, a bullfinch flew into the room. The Queen 
caught it and held it until a cage of hemp and rushes 



NEED OF EARNESTNESS. 213 



was made. Some weeks later, on June 3, as she 
was leaving, the bird escaped and flew away. On her 
departure from the college gate, her Majesty said : 
"Mr. Warden, in remembrance of my happy visit, I 
pray you always liberate hereafter a wild bullfinch on 
this day." So it is that on this day every year the 
warden comes out into the quadrangle at 11 o'clock, 
holding a little cage of hemp and rushes, in which is 
a bullfinch. The junior bursar, who has been await- 
ing his arrival, then advances, saying : " Mr. Warden, 
is this Queen Catharine's bird? " "Aye," the warden 
replies, "this is Queen Catharine's bird." The bur- 
sar then opens the cage and claps his hands until the 
bird flies away. Surely no queen could ask for a 
sweeter remembrance than that. And yet a sweeter 
remembrance is possible for all men and women, 
however humble, who will devote their lives to set- 
ting free the victims of sin. Those who patiently 
labor to bring deliverance to the poor drunkard and 
his family will ever be remembered by the sweet songs 
of freedom they have caused to spring up in ransomed 
hearts. 

NEED OF EARNESTNESS. 

Epochs of great advancement among men have been 
also epochs of great earnestness. Great revivals of 
religion have been born of intense zeal on the part of 
earnest heroic souls. Men like Paul, willing to be 
accursed if their brother may be saved, have been the 
kind who have shaken the world. In order to do our 
best work, we need to feel this holy longing for the 



214 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



world's salvation. Some unknown poet suggests this 
miracle-working spirit in a poem entitled, "When 
Wilt Thou Save the People?*'' 

When wilt thou save the people? 

O God of mercy, when? 
Not kings and lords, but nations ! 

Not thrones and crowns, but men ! 
Flowers of thy heart, O God, are they ; 
Let them not pass, like weeds, away, — 
Their heritage a sunless day. 

God save the people ! 

Shall crime bring crime forever, 

Strength aiding still the strong? 
Is it thy will, O Father, 

That man shall toil for wrong? 
"No," say thy mountains, "No," thy skies: 
Man's clouded sun shall brightly rise, 
And songs ascend instead of sighs. 

God save the people ! 

When wilt thou save the people? 

O God of mercy, when? 
The people, Lord, the people ! 

Not thrones and crowns, but men ! 
God save the people ! Thine they are, 
Thy children, as thine angels fair. 
From vice, oppression, and despair, 

God save the people ! 

A HOPEFUL CHRISTIANITY. 

"It was the grave-digging," says a returning sol- 
dier, "that broke down many of the boys. Nothing 
could be more disheartening than to take the body of 
a dead comrade out and fight off the buzzards while 
digging the grave. It is bad enough to hear the earth 



THE GLORY OF DUTY. 



215 



rattle down on the top of a coffin containing the form 
of a comrade, but it is shocking to put an uncoffined 
form into the ground and pile the dirt on top of it. 
The men detailed for burials were easily disheart- 
ened, and the soldier who lost heart was himself a can- 
didate for an early burial." It was Abraham's hope 
of a city whose builder and maker was God that made 
him superior to the loneliness of the desert. It is the 
Christian's vision of Easter-time and the promise of 
everlasting life that give him courage to see life grow- 
ing out of death and snatch victory out of defeat. 

THE GLORY OF DUTY, 

Duty is the harness that fits all loads ; it is a suit 
of clothes adapted to any climate and to all seasons. 
Sometimes we are ready to cry out against it, but it 
holds the peace of God in its hand. Thomas Went- 
worth Higginson sings a very graphic sonnet "To 
Duty " : 

Light of dim mornings ; shield from heat and cold ; 

Balm for all ailments ; substitute for praise ; 

Comrade of those who plod in lonely ways 
(Ways that grow lonelier as the years wax old) ; 
Tonic for fears ; check to the overbold ; 

Nurse whose calm hand its strong restriction lays, 

Kind but resistless, on our wayward days ; 
Mart, where high wisdom at vast price is sold ; 
Gardener, whose touch bids the rose petals fall, 

The thorns endure ; surgeon, who human hearts 
Searchest with probes, tho the death-touch be given ; 

Spell that knits friends, but yearning lovers parts ; 
Tyrant relentless, o'er our blisses all, — 
Oh, can it be, thine other name is Heaven? 



216 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



OUR SLAIN LIONS. 

The chief of the Cherokee Indians, Jim Rey, which 
in English means John King, a very distinguished- 
looking man, is fifty-eight years old. He was edu- 
cated at the best schools in the country, including the 
medical course at Ann Arbor, Mich. He wears a long 
chain around his neck which contains a number of 
teeth of lions which he killed in Sierra Leone, Africa. 
He owns a large ranch in old Mexico, on which he 
has seventeen hundred head of cattle. At the time 
the Spanish war broke out he was living in Cuba, 
where he has a large tract of land on which were two 
sugar-mills. The Spanish came to him and demanded 
$500 for war expenses. He gave the amount; but 
when they came and demanded $500 additional, he 
pleaded the necessity of going to Havana to obtain the 
money. When he arrived in the city, he drew out all 
of his money from the bank and left immediately for 
America. His mills were afterward destroyed by the 
Spaniards. Two of his sons were with Dewey in the 
Philippines. He is a brilliant speaker and has the 
erect carriage of his tribe. He has spent many years 
traveling abroad, and has many relics of his travels, 
but none that he regards so sacredly as these lions' 
teeth which bear testimony to his courage and prowess 
as a hunter. It is a great thing in a moral way, as a 
man comes on toward old age, to have his necklace 
of lions' teeth about his neck that tells of the sins he 
has fought and conquered, of the iniquities that have 
been smitten by his courageous sword. Young men 



SOLDIERS OF CHRIST. 



217 



can not do better than to take Whittier's advice and 
in their youth ally themselves with some just, tho it 
may be unpopular, cause. In old age it will be their 
glory, 

OUT OF TOUCH WITH CHRIST. 

If our lives are to be effective in helping to bring 
in the reign of Jesus Christ on the earth, we must 
keep close to him, live in his spirit, and attract others 
to him by our gracious influence. Jean Watson puts 
it strongly in " Out of Touch " : 

Only a smile, yes, only a smile, 
That a woman o'erburdened with grief 
Expected from you ; 'twould have given her relief, 

For her heart ached sore the while ; 
But weary and cheerless she went away, 
Because, as it happened, that very day 

You were "out of touch " with your Lord. 

Only a day, yes, only a day, 
But oh ! can you guess, my friend, 
Where the influence reaches, and where it will end, 

Of the hours that you frittered away? 
The Master's command is, "Abide in me " ; 
And fruitless and vain will your service be 

If " out of touch " with your Lord. 

SOLDIERS OF CHRIST. 

An old Confederate officer tells an interesting story 
of the Civil War. Lincoln was urged from the begin- 
ning of the war to take Richmond ; but talking of tak- 
ing Richmond and taking Richmond were two dif- 
ferent matters. General Scott, who was not retired 



218 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



until after several futile attempts had been made to 
take Richmond, was summoned before the President. 
"General Scott/' said Mr. Lincoln, "will you explain 
why it was you were able to take the City of Mexico 
in three months with 5,000 men, and have been un- 
able to take Richmond in six months with 100,000 
men?" "Yes, sir, I will, Mr. President," replied 
General Scott. " The men who took me into the City 
of Mexico are the same men who rare keeping me out 
of Richmond now." If we can bring all the soldierly 
qualities of which we are justly so proud into conse- 
cration to Jesus Christ, the Christian army of Amer- 
ica will be able to lead the hosts for the capture of 
the world for our Master. 

JOY AND SERVICE, 

The people who give their lives to a fox-chase after 
happiness never carry home the brush ; for happiness 
always eludes the man or the woman who pursues it. 
But the one who tries to help the world breathes hap- 
piness as the gardener does the fragrance of the plants 
he tills. Bertha Woods well expresses it in her little 
poem entitled, " The Coming of Joy " : 

He sought for Joy with eager, outstretched arms, 

But ever she grew fleeter to elude 
His longing grasp — among the haunts of men, 

Or in the quiet courts of solitude. 

Outwearied, he forsook the quest at last. 

"Since Grief my portion is," he murmured, "then 
My strife henceforth shall be to make less keen 

The throbbing heartaches of my brother men." 



THE FRIENDLY HAND. 



219 



So passed his days, till one fair morning broke, 
The sunshine taking place of shadows dim. 

His eyes grew wide, half doubting what they saw, 
For Joy at last had come to bide with him. 

THE TREACHERY OF SIN. 

During the Jarnieson raid in South. Africa one of the 
troopers, falling ill, was taken prisoner by some Boers 
and kept at their farmhouse some days. He was tied 
up and forced to submit to all sorts of ill-treatment, 
among other things being given dirty water to drink 
when half-dying with thirst. But his captor's wife 
pretended to have compassion on him, and at the end 
of several days, to his surprise, he was told that he 
was to be allowed to go free. The Boers gave him a 
horse, mounted him, and informed him that the one 
condition they made was that he was to ride away as 
fast as he could. He naturally obeyed, and as the 
poor fellow galloped off, several bullets were shot 
through his body. Sin works that sort of treachery 
with its victims. Many a man, after trying to slake 
his thirst on the vile beverages of iniquity, has tried 
to escape from his bondage only to be slain from a 
new ambush. But there is One who can deliver us 
from sin ; Christ is the great Liberator. 

THE FRIENDLY HAND. 

We may be sure that the Christ who has promised 
blessings in reward for those who give only " a cup of 
! cold water " as they pass along the way of life, looks 
with great sympathy and love for those who watch 



220 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



for chances to give a smile, or a handshake, or a help- 
ing shoulder to make the way easier for some tempted 
or discouraged or broken-down neighbor. James 
Whitcomb Biley puts it well in his little poem : 

When a man ain't got a cent, an' lie's feelin' kind o' blue, 
An' the clouds hang dark an' heavy, an' won't let the sunshine 
through, 

It's a great thing, O my brethren, for a feller just to lay 
His hand upon your shoulder in a friendly sort o' way ! 

It makes a man feel curious ; it makes the tear-drops start, 
An' you sort o' feel a flutter in the region of the heart. 
You can't look up an' meet his eyes ; you don't know what to 
say, 

When his hand is on your shoulder in a friendly sort o' way. 

Oh, the world's a curious compound, with its honey an' its gall, 
With its cares an' bitter crosses ; but a good world, after all. 
An' a good God must have made it — leastways, that is what I 
say 

When a hand rests on my shoulder in a friendly sort o' way. 

RESPECTING OUR INTELLIGENCE. 

While Admiral Schley was sinking Cervera's fleet 
he kept the men on his ship informed of what was 
going on. When everything was destroyed or sur- 
rendered but the Colon, he despatched orderlies to the 
stoke-hole and engine-room, saying: "Now, boys, it 
all depends on you. Everything is sunk except the 
Colon, and she is trying to getaway. We don't want 
her to, and everything depends on you." The result 
seemed to prove that it was very wise to thus respect 
the personality and intelligence of the men. Christ 



UNKNOWN HEROES. 



221 



deals that way with. us. He said to his disciples: "I 
have called you friends ; for all things that I have 
heard of rny Father I have made known unto you." 
This divine fellowship nerves the Christian to bear the 
trials of life. We shall never have to go alone into 
any dark experience, for Christ will keep pace with 
us there. 

UNKNOWN HEROES. 

It is a comfort to know that a book of life is kept 
in heaven. The daily newspaper or the monthly 
magazine may overlook the quiet heroism of a true 
soul, but it is not forgotten ; God takes note, and in 
his own good time will give due honor to the unknown 
heroes of earth. George Alway puts it strongly in 
his poem, entitled " Honors " : 

When God shall call the muster-roll, 

As heroes he'll mark off 
Some who ne'er charged at Waterloo, 

Or stormed the Malakoff. 

Stars, garters, crosses, ribbons, fade; 

New orders here unfold : 
The widow's mite, St. Martin's cloak, 

The cup of water cold. 

The hearts that saved the world by love 

And hourly Calvaries bore, 
The mother-martyrs, queenly host, 

Are marshaled to the fore. 

Earth's black-robed throngs are clad in white ; 

Their brows a light adorns — 
A radiance of diamond, 

Crowns of transfigured thorns. 



222 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Some humble folk we knew quite well, 

But passed with scarce a nod, 
Now rank as heaven's nobility — 

The chivalry of God. 

Imperial names of history 

Omitted from the list ; 
In Paradise, preferment shows 

A hidden satirist. 

The heavens are taken by surprise ; 

Archangels hold their breath ; 
Through audience multitudinous 

A stillness reigns like death. 

Then nutter ings of seraphs' wings — 

Applauding cherubim — 
With joy long pent the skies are rent — 

A million eyes grow dim — 

And down far-peopled spaces rolls 
« A surge of gratitude, 

That God from bitter grapes of life 
Should crush beatitude. 

'Tis thus, with irony divine, 

Earth's judgments are reversed ; 
When God shall call the muster-roll 

The last will be the first. 

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Last year a wicked, drunken woman, in one of our 
large cities, was attracted into a church one Sunday- 
evening and converted to Christ, The pastor of the 
church went to see her husband in the week afterward, 
and found him a shrewd mechanic, who, however, 
was very bitter against Christianity, and professed to 
be greatly fascinated with Ingersoll's sneers at the 



WAITING. 



223 



Bible. He was full of contempt at his wife's profes- 
sion of conversion, and said he had no doubt that 
she'd soon get over it. Six months passed away, and 
one evening this same man called to see the minister 
in great anxiety concerning his own salvation. He 
said : " I have read all the leading books on the evi- 
dences of Christianity and I can stand out against 
their arguments ; but for the last six months I have 
had an open book about my own fireside, in the pres- 
ence of my wife, that I am not able to answer. I 
have come to the conclusion that I am wrong, and that 
there must be something holy and divine about a re- 
ligion that could take a woman that would swear and 
get drunk and change her into the loving, patient, 
prayerful, singing saint that she is now. " The best 
books on Christianity are the men and women who 
live transformed lives, in fellowship with Christ. 



WAITING. 

Sometimes the only thing we can do and do right is 
to "stand still and see the salvation of God." Wait- 
ing is always harder than working, and its results are 
often more precious. Nellie Willis sings our message : 

I wrought for love of fame, 

To win myself a name, 
And when, at last, I reached my long-sought goal, 

My conscience said to me : 

"What means all this to thee? 

In seeking fame and power, 

Thou lived' st but for the hour, 
And, living thus, hast pauperized thy soul." 



224 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



And then, with purpose new, 
With strong intent, and true, 

I strove the slaves of sin and want to free. 
The Master sought my side : 
"Thou must be sorely tried, 
Ere thou canst hope to lead, 
From out their deepest need, 

The least of these, my children, unto me." 

With sad and downcast heart, 

I cried : "Is there no part 
For me in this great world of sin and wo? " 

He gently said to me : 

"I've planned thy life for thee. 

I'd have thee do my will, 

By simply lying still ; 
Thou' It please me more, and serve me better, so. 

And now, in quiet ways, 

Through uneventful days, 
I take each hour as coming from his hand ; 

And tho the tears will start, 

At so obscure a part, 

I'm sure he knoweth best ; 

I leave to him the rest, 
And seek to live the life that he hath planned. 



THE ORCHIDS OF THE SOUL. 

The orchid craze has struck Japan with as much 
violence as the tulip craze once descended on helpless 
Holland. A Japanese newspaper describes a new 
variety of orchids which, tho very small in size, en- 
thusiasts contend for at the rate of $1,000 a leaf and 
upward. What a happy world it would be if the 
spiritual orchids, such as peace, faith, hope, love, 



THE FORKS OF THE ROAD. 



225 



patience, meekness, and goodness, were sought after 
in as earnest a competition ! 

THE FORKS OF THE ROAD. 

Many a young man or young woman stands where 
the roads diverge. One path goes to the right and 
one to the left; they do not seem to be very far apart 
at the beginning, or to diverge rapidly at first; but 
they are as far apart as heaven and hell at the end. 
Clara Keniston sings the sorrow of one who took the 
wrong path : 

Oh, could I go back to the forks of the road — 
Back over the long miles I have carried the load ; 
Back to the place where I had to decide, 
By this sign or that sign my footsteps to guide. 

Back to the sorrow, back to the care, 
Back to the place where the future was fair. 
Oh, were I there now, decision to make, 
My Father in heaven, which road would I take? 

Oh, could I go back to the forks of the road 
With the wisdom I've gathered in bearing this load, 
A different decision, dear God, would I make, 
And the path of the righteous my footsteps should take. 

The broad road of pleasure no glory hath won, 
It hath brought me to anguish — my whole life undone. 
And now, at the end, ah, 'tis wretched and drear ! 
My heart is nigh breaking, I tremble with fear. 

The road is so tangled with briar and thorn, 
To find the way back I'm ever o'er worn ; 
Deep-suck in despair I'm 'wildered and lost 
Of choosing the wrong road, how bitter the cost! 

15 



226 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



If God in his mercy would show me the way 
To return, to return, to the light of youth's day, 
My road I would choose by the sign of the Word — 
With Jesus my Leader, my Way, and my Lord. 

THE WRECKS OF SELF-INDULGENCE. 

A shamed and despairing woman stood in the police 
court in Cleveland one morning upon a charge of in- 
toxication. Forty-seven times she had been in the 
workhouse. In fact, she had lodged there so often 
that it was the only home she had known for five 
years. She seemed that morning to have a new ap- 
preciation of the depths to which her sin had plunged 
her, and pleaded hard with the judge to allow her to 
go to her brother's home in the country. "I will 
never drink again," she said; and, tho the court had 
no hope, perhaps, for that, she was given twenty-four 
hours to leave the city. This poor creature was forty- 
five years old. Ten years before she had been a 
happy wife and mother. But she would not deny 
herself her glass of beer, and little by little it gained 
the mastery over her, until, forsaken by relatives and 
friends, she became a creature of the gutter. Alas ! 
that the city and the State make it so easy for the 
weak to go wrong and so hard for them to go right. 

A SKY-BORN MUSIC 

If heaven is mirrored in our hearts, we shall have 
music under all the hard circumstances of life, and 
know what Christ meant when he said to his dis- 
ciples that he left his joy with them, and no man 



PROTECTING THE ORCHARD. 227 



should be able to take it away. Emerson must have 
been singing out of his own heart-experience when he 
wrote these glorious lines : 

Let me go where'er I will 

I hear a sky-born music still : 

It sounds from all things old, 

It sounds from all things young, 

From all that's fair, from all that's foul, 

Peals out a cheerful song. 

It is not only in the rose, 

It is not only in the bird, 

Not only where the rainbow glows, 

Nor in the song of woman heard, 

But in the darkest, meanest thing 

There alway, alway something sings. 

'Tis not in the high stars alone, 

Nor in the cups of budding flowers, 

Nor in the redbreast's mellow tone, 

Nor in the bow that smiles in showers, 

But in the mud and scum of things 

There alway, alway something sings. 

PROTECTING THE ORCHARD. 

Frost is a frequent feature of orange-growing in 
California, and many devices for keeping it from 
harming the orchards have been tried from time to 
time with only partial success. During the day the 
earth and trees become warm ; but as the night cools 
the atmosphere the process of radiation sets in, and 
the heat from the earth and the trees is carried off, 
the cold, frosty atmosphere taking its place. The 
farmers have discovered that this warm air must not 
be allowed to escape. The fact is evident that the 



228 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



trees must be covered. A fog would do this effectu- 
ally, but fogs can not be manufactured to order. 
Various experiments have been tried, but they have 
finally settled on a roof of leather and tho it costs 
$400 an acre, it is soon returned in the great crops 
of fruit the safety of which is assured by this process. 
Spiritual gardeners who have to do with children and 
groups of young human plants in schools and churches 
and families may well take to heart the suggestion of 
carefulness on the part of these California fruit-grow- 
ers. Nothing yields such priceless fruit and at the 
same time is so sensitive to destructive influences as 
the youthful human heart. To the wise spiritual gar- 
dener no expense in care and thoughtfulness is too 
much to insure the safety and growth of these young 
immortals. 

THE TRULY VALIANT. 

Shakespeare declares that the bravest man is the 
one who will suffer in body or purse rather than be 
injured in heart and character. In "Timon of 
Athens " he brings this out in strong lines : 

He's truly valiant, that can wisely suffer 

The worst that man can breathe ; and make his wrongs 

His outsides ; wear them like his raiment, carelessly ; 

And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart, 

To bring it into danger. 

THE FLAVOR OF LIFE. 

Within recent years much of the tea consumed in 
Russia has made the sea voyage from Chinese ports 
to Odessa on the Black Sea; but Russians say that tea 



A SOUL-PARALYZING "IF." 229 



transported by sea loses much in flavor and quality. 
In consequence of this the largest tea-merchants con- 
tinue to receive the bulk of their stock by the over- 
land route. Many Christians lose the sweet flavor of 
spirituality out of their lives because they are in too 
great a hurry to get their goods to market. The busi- 
ness man thinks he has not time to read the Bible in 
the morning with his family ; he has not time for 
family prayers ; he has not time for secret devotions, 
and so rushes into the busy life of the day without 
that delicate, Christlike flavor that would come to him 
through fellowship with God's word and communion 
with Christ. 

A SOUL-PARALYZING "IF." 

To note the superiority of the Christian's hope and 
faith to that of the agnostic one has only to read the 
following lines which have been engraved on the grave 
of Professor Huxley : 

And if there be no meeting past the grave, 

If all is darkness, silence, yet 'tis rest, 
Be not afraid, ye waiting hearts that weep, 
Por God still giveth his beloved sleep, 

And if an endless sleep, he wills so best. 

Contrast this sort of consolation with : " Let not 
your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe 
also in me. In my Father's house are many man- 
sions ; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go 
to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare 
a place for you, I will come again and receive you 
unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." 



230 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS. 

A correspondent of the New York Sun, describing 
the scenes on that fatal Friday at Santiago, says that 
while the proportion of colored men wounded was 
large, by their courage and supreme cheerfulness they 
carried off the palm for heroism. Here is what one 
of the wounded Rough Riders, Kenneth Robinson, 
has to say about the black soldiers: "I'll tell you 
what it is, " said Robinson ; " without any disregard to 
my own regiment I want to say that the whitest men 
in this fight have been the black ones. At all events, 
they have been the best friends that the Rough Rid- 
ers have had, and every one of us, from Colonel 
Roosevelt down, appreciates it. When our men were 
being mowed down to right and left in that charge up 
the hill, it was the black cavalrymen who were the 
first to carry our wounded away ; and during that 
awful day and night that I lay in the field hospital, 
it was two big colored men, badly wounded them- 
selves, who kept my spirits up. Why, in camp every 
night before the fight, the colored soldiers used to 
come over and serenade Colonels Wood and Roosevelt. 
And weren't they just tickled to death about it ! The 
last night before I was wounded a whole lot of them 
came over, and when Colonel Roosevelt made a little 
speech thanking them for their songs, one big ser- 
geant got up and said: 'It's all right, colonel; we's 
all Rough Riders now.' " A common danger and a 
common fellowship in suffering rapidly break down 
all artificial barriers. It is one of the great triumphs 



SPARING THE FATHER TO SAVE THE BOYS. 231 



of Christianity that the barriers between nations and 
races are becoming lower every year. 

THE LENS OF FAITH. 

The man or woman who is in earnest abont helping 
to roll the world toward the light needs to look throngh 
that lens of faith abont which Whittier sings : 

O clear-eyed Faith, and Patience, thou 

So calm and strong ! 
Lend strength to weakness, teach us how 
The sleepless eyes of God look through 

This night of wrong ! 
The long night dies : the welcome gray 

Of dawn we see ; 
Speed up the heavens thy perfect day, 

God of the free ! 

SPARING THE FATHER TO SAVE THE BOYS. 

I had once in one of my churches an old man who 
was one of those ne'er-do-wells who spend a good part 
of their time falling into sin, and the rest in having 
people pull them out of it. The old fellow, every 
little while, would get tempted away by bad company 
or his own inherited appetite, and the first thing I 
knew I would hear that he was tipsy again. There 
were several men in the church who were thoroughly 
disgusted with him and thought he ought to be ex- 
pelled. I thought myself that so far as he was con- 
cerned, he deserved it. But the case was made per- 
plexing by the fact that he had a good wife and a fine 
family of growing boys, and my argument with these 
brethren who were determined to expel the old man 



232 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



was that we would not only grieve this good woman's 
heart, but would probably turn the boys away from 
us forever. I never shall forget that when one of 
the boys suddenly came out openly to make a public 
profession as a Christian he said to me : " The thing 
that has done more to touch my heart and make me 
want to be a Christian than anything else is the pa- 
tient and Christlike way in which you have borne 
with my father." The boy is one of the finest young 
men in the country, and I have always thought it paid 
to bear with the father to save that boy. 

A WONDERFUL "WIZARD, 

Many a charm can love work in our human lives. 
It can make the hardest toil sweet, and it can annihi- 
late distance and bring heaven's best comforts down 
into the darkest day of human experience. Lucy 
Larcom sings: 

Oh, Love is a wonderful wizard ! 

He can see by his own keen light ; 
He laughs at the wrath of the tempest, 

He has never a fear of the night. 
Two lives that are wedded leagues hold not apart : 
Love can hear, e'en through thunder, the beat of a heart ! 

THE RELATIVE VALUE OF THINGS. 

It is a wise man who keeps in mind the relative 
value of two things offered him, either of which he 
may accept, but where the acceptance of one pre- 
cludes the other. A man who had a chance to make 
one hundred dollars in an offered investment would 



AN AGED CHRISTIAN'S VANTAGE-GROUND. 233 



be very foolish to accept it if by doing so lie lost the 
opportunity of making a thousand dollars in another 
investment, knowing that he must choose between 
them. That was the kind of blunder which Dives 
made in the old Gospel story. Lazarus made a fail- 
ure of life so far as business success was concerned, 
and through some misfortune, the character of which 
we do not know, came at the last in his weakness and 
sickness to be dependent upon charity ; but through it 
all he kept his heart pure and his life clean, so that 
the angels were glad to carry him on their wings to 
associate with Abraham, " the friend of G-od. " Dives 
had much better opportunities than Lazarus for doing 
good and being good, but he gave himself up to self- 
indulgence of the baser sort, and at the last was com- 
pelled to listen to the words of doom declaring that 
he in his lifetime had had his good things, and must 
now endure the evil things which the choice of his 
life had brought upon him. Lazarus and Dives are 
both well-known characters in every city and town in 
the land. 

AN AGED CHRISTIAN'S VANTAGE-GROUND. 

To the aged Christian both the retrospect and the 
anticipation are full of comfort. Oliver Wendell 
Holmes describes this most beautifully in his poem 
addressed to Whittier on the grand old Quaker poet's 
eightieth birthday : 

Friend, whom thy fourscore winters leave more dear 
Than when life's roseate summer on thy cheek 
Burned in the flush of manhood's manliest year, 



234 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Look backward ! From thy lofty height survey 
Thy years of toil, of peaceful victories won, 
Of dreams made real, of largest hopes outrun ! 
Look forward ! Brighter than earth's morning ray 
Streams the pure light of Heaven's unsetting sun, 
The unclouded dawn of life's immortal day ! 

ANXIETY CONTAGIOUS. 

Major Waddell has been traveling in the Himalayas, 
and has written a book in which he tells a very inter- 
esting story of the leeches he found in the damp for- 
est of the Teesta valley. When a leech is famishing, 
he is only as thick as a knitting-needle. When in 
that condition, he is the hungry enemy of every two- 
footed or four-footed creature which crosses his path. 
The leeches were everywhere. They held themselves 
alert on every twig of the brushwood that overhung 
the track of the travelers and on every dead leaf on 
the path. As the men approached, they lashed them- 
selves vigorously to and fro in the wild endeavor to 
seize hold of them. The instant they touched their 
victims they fixed themselves firmly, and then mounted 
nimbly up by a series of rapid somersaults till they 
reached a vulnerable point ; and then they lost not an 
instant in beginning their surgical operations. The 
poor servants who walked barefooted had little streams 
of blood trickling all day from the places where they 
were bitten, and at every few steps they had to stop 
and pick off these horrid little pests, and it was often 
difficult to dislodge them. The man who is in the 
habit of giving himself up to be anxious, and who 
worries about everything, is a good deal like that 



REJECTED ROYALTY. 



235 



Teesta valley. Hungry leeches wriggle in his con- 
versation and lash themselves to and fro from his 
blue, grim face. It is a terrible thing to go through 
the world in such a spirit that one spreads the leeches 
of anxiety and worry and fretfulness among those who 
have to come in contact with them. 

THE LIVING CREED, 

It is the living Christ, who went about doing good, 
who wept at the grave of friendship, who opened blind 
eyes and made sorrowful hearts glad, who brings God 
close to men. Tennyson sings it well : 

And so the Word had breath, and wrought 

With human hands the creed of creeds. 

In loveliness of perfect deeds, 
More strong than all poetic thought ; 

Which he may read that binds the sheaf, 
Or builds the house, or digs the grave, 
And those wild eyes that watch the wave 

In roarings round the coral reef. 

REJECTED ROYALTY, 

The elder brother of the present Earl of Aberdeen, 
who was the sixth Earl of Aberdeen, left England in 
1863, after quarreling with his father, and when the 
latter died, a year later, bequeathing to him the fam- 
ily honors and estates, he refused to return to Eng- 
land or to assume his rank as a peer of the realm, but 
remained abroad, mostly in American waters, earning 
his livelihood as a sailor before the mast. It was 



236 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



while serving as such that he disappeared from on 
board ship while on his way from Boston to Mel- 
bourne, being presumably washed overboard in a 
storm. He had been Earl of Aberdeen for six years 
without assuming possession of either the title or the 
estates, living as a sailor before the mast when he 
might have lived the life of a wealthy British peer. 
Every sinner is doing a thing like that. We were 
born to be the children of God, to be joint heirs with 
J esus Christ ; but through sin men are uncrowned ; 
they refuse to accept their royal inheritance. And so 
we see every day men who might be the sons of God, 
the pride and glory of heaven, living debased and 
bankrupt lives. 

CARELESSNESS. 

A man does not have to be malicious in his purpose 
in order to leave a train of misery and sorrow behind 
him. All that is required is that he be careless about 
what he does. Some unknown poet well illustrates it : 

How easy it is to spoil a day ! 

The thoughtless words of cherished friends, 
The selfish act of a child at play, 

The strength of a will that will not bend, 
The slight of a comrade, the scorn of a foe, 

The smile that is full of bitter things — 
They all can tarnish its golden glow, 

And take the grace from its airy wings. 

How easy it is to spoil a day 

By the force of a thought we did not check ! 
Little by little we mold the clay, 

And little flaws may the vessel wreck. 



DESTROYED BY CONTEMPTIBLE ENEMIES. 237 



The careless waste of a white-winged horn- 
That held the blessing we long had sought, 

The sudden loss of wealth or power — 
And lo ! the day is with ill inwrought. 

How easy it is to spoil a life — 

And many are spoiled ere well begun — 
In some life darkened by sin and strife, 

Or downward course of a cherished one ; 
By toil, that robs the form of its grace, 

And undermines till health gives way ; 
By the peevish temper, the frowning face, 

The hopes that go and the cares that stay. 

A day is too long to be spent in vain ; 

Some good should come as the hours go by — 
Some tangled maze may be more plain, 

Some lowered glance may be raised on high. 
And life is too short to spoil like this ; 

If only a prelude, it may be sweet ; 
Let us bind together in threads of bliss 

And nourish the flowers around our feet. 

DESTROYED BY CONTEMPTIBLE ENEMIES. 

A woman in Chicago recently lost a little chamois 
bag containing a thousand dollars' worth of jewels. 
She supposed it had been stolen, and a reward of two 
hundred dollars was offered for the return of the dia- 
monds. Finally a detective was called into the case 
who in his youth had served as a powder-boy on a 
man-of-war, and had become well acquainted with the 
customs of rats. He made a search and soon found 
a hole in the wall through which it was possible the 
missing bag might have gone. A thorough examina- 
tion discovered the lost jewels helping to make luxu- 



238 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



rious the nest of an old gray rat. Many people lose 
their jewels of character not through the ravages of 
some lion -like enemy, but by the rat-like sins of sel- 
fishness or indifference. 

DOING OUR BEST. 

God never requires of any of us that we shall ac- 
complish the impossible. A willing heart that does 
the best it can under the circumstances is always sure 
of the divine approval. Ella Wheeler Wilcox sug- 
gests the thought in her little poem, "I'll Do What I 
Can." 

Who takes for his motto, "I'll do what I can," 

Shall better the world as he goes down life's hill. 
The willing young heart makes the capable man ; 

And who does what he can, oft can do what he will. 
There's strength in the impulse to help things along, 

And forces undreamed-of will come to the aid 
Of one who, tho weak, yet believes he is strong, 

And offers himself to the task unafraid. 

"I'll do what I can," is a challenge to fate, 

And fate must succumb when it's put to the test : 
A heart that is willing to labor and wait, 

In its tussle with life, ever comes out the best. 
It puts the blue imps of depression to rout, 

And makes many difficult problems seem plain : 
It mounts over obstacles, dissipates doubt, 

And unravels kinks in life's curious chain. 

"I'll do what I can," keeps the progress machine 
In good working order as centuries roll ; 
And civilization would perish, I ween, 
Were those words not written on many a soul. 



MYSELF AND I. 



239 



They fell the great forests, they furrow the soil, 

They seek new inventions to benefit man, 
They fear no exertion, make pastime of toil. 

Oh, great is earth's debt to "I'll do what I can." 

POWER OF EARLY ASSOCIATIONS. 

A man may get old and wrinkled, but away down 
in his heart there are memories of boyhood and youth 
and the opening years of home fellowship which when 
recalled mellow his nature and arouse his best self. 
Eugene Field strikes deep into the heart of many a 
stern-faced, gray -headed man when he sings : 

There is no love like the good old love— 

The love that mother gave us ! 
We are old, old men, yet we pine again 

For that precious grace — God save us ! 
So we dream and dream of the good old times, 

And our hearts grow tenderer, fonder, 
As those dear old dreams bring soothing gleams 

Of heaven away off yonder. 

MYSELF AND L 

The price of peace in our own hearts is righteous- 
ness of conduct. The man who does wrong may al- 
ways be certain of strife and unrest when he is alone. 
Clara Myers Knowlton gives us a true note in " My- 
self and I." 

Sometimes we're friends, yes, very good friends, 

When all has gone our way ; 
When we've worked very well and then mixed in 

Some right good fun and play, 
At night, quite peaceful, there we lie 
And love each other, Myself and I. 



240 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Sometimes we're foes, the awfullest foes, 

When everything's gone amiss ; 
When we've left undone just scores of things 

And think with regret of this, 
At night, in wakeful strife, we lie 

And hate each other, Myself and I. 

THE DEVIL'S SCARECROWS. 

The extraordinary situations in which nests are oc- 
casionally discovered almost gives one the impression 
that birds must be endowed with a sense of humor., 
For instance, a bird in New England is reported to 
have selected, as the foundation on which to build its 
nest, a scarecrow which the gardener had erected to 
frighten the bird away from his crop. That surely 
looks like poking fun at the gardener. The devil puts 
up a good many scarecrows to keep men and women 
from becoming Christians and to scare them from en- 
joying the rich garden which the Lord cultivates for 
the pleasure of his children. The wise man will treat 
them as this New England bird treated the scarecrow 
with its useless gun. 

THE INNER SIGHT. 

A man may have clear vision with the outer eye 
and carry a blind soul, and a man may walk in dark- 
ness so that he see not the common things of the 
world but have spiritual perceptions that look on the 
glories of heaven. Some one has written a little 
poem in which some children are represented as 
watching a blind weaver at his task in a dark miser- 



THE WORLDLY CHURCH. 241 



able cellar. They pity him in his suffering, but know 
not the visions which gladden the eyes of his spirit : 

His form is famine-gaunt and bowed, 
His aged hands have lost their skill ; 

But, like the moon within a cloud, 
A hidden light his soul doth fill. 

It shineth through his careworn face, 

And o'er his sordid garb it flings 
The viewless mantle of a grace 

Not found in palaces of kings. 

On journeys high his spirit fares, 

Of realms of sunless light is free ; 
The triumph of the saints he shares, 

He stands beside the Crystal Sea. 

He hears the mystic anthem tone ; 

He mingles with the tearless throng 
Who meet before the Great White Throne ; 

His voice uplifts the Wedding Song. 



THE WORLDLY CHURCH, 

One of the most peculiar cases of discovery is re- 
ported to have taken place at Soulac, in Gascony. 
In the first place, a cross was discovered projecting 
above the ground; as it was difficult to move, the 
surrouncling sand was dug away, revealing the fact 
that it was attached to a steeple ; and further excava- 
tion showed that the steeple formed part of a well- 
preserved church of the thirteenth century, which has 
now been entirely dug out, and is in use. This inter- 
esting incident suggests a like condition illustrated in 
many churches built in modern times. They are cov- 
16 



242 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



ered over with worldliness. They are so full of pride, 
and worldly competitions, and earthly dependence, 
that there is scarcely so much as a cross left above 
the earth to suggest the sacred purpose of their origi- 
nal building. What a glorious thing it would be for 
Christianity if all these worldly churches could be 
dug out and aroused earnestly to set about their Mas- 
ter's business. 

THE LAW OF PROGRESS. 

Men who give themselves resolutely to work al- 
ways find that they are able to accomplish more than 
seemed possible while they were idle. The horizon 
widens as the traveler climbs upward. Many a Chris- 
tian who feels that he is not able to accomplish any- 
thing in the Lord's vineyard would be astonished at 
his achievements if he would only go to work in the 
right spirit Amelia Barr illustrates our thought in 
"When I Went Out to Glean " : 

When I went out to glean 

The field was brown and bare, 
But as I worked I found 

My sheaf was always there. 

When I went out to glean 

There was so little light ; 
But soon the sun rose high 

And made the shadows bright. 

When I went out to glean 

I thought the field so small, 
But lo ! it grew and grew 

Beyond my ken, or call. 



UNSELFISHNESS. 



243 



Thanks, Ancient Giver, thanks ! 

Thine handmaiden has seen 
How kind thou art to those 

Who in thy fields go glean. 
Lord of the Harvest, grant 

That at the last I bring 
My sheaves all ripe and full, 

To thy ingathering. 

AUGMENTERS OF SPIRITUAL EMPIRE. 

By Germany's purchase of the Spanish islands in 
the Pacific, the Kaiser has acquired additional right 
to be regarded as " Augmenter of the Empire. " This 
was one of the proudest titles attached to the impe- 
rial office in medieval times, and it was revived by 
William I. when he restored Alsace-Lorraine to Ger- 
many. His grandson, William II., first justified his 
claim when he acquired Heligoland. Every Chris- 
tian ought to aspire to become an augmenter of the 
spiritual empire of Jesus Christ. Every man or 
woman or child whom we persuade to renounce evil 
and accept Christ as a personal Savior and Lord is 
the adding of a new kingdom to the dominion of Him 
who shall finally reign over all the earth. 

UNSELFISHNESS. 

The beauty of unselfishness and its superiority over 
the selfish life in God's thought are well illustrated 
in Prof A. A. Bragdon's poem, "The Two Monks." 

A worthy monk, as ancient legends say, 
Planted, with care, a tender tree one day, 
Thinking with joy how it would grow anon, 
And yield him profit from the fruit thereon. 



244 



POETRY AND MORALS; 



Pleased with his task, upon the spot he bowed, 
And to himself with pious pride he vowed: 
"Now I will pray each day, and God will give 
Whate'er I ask to make the sapling live." 

And to his credit "be it written now, 

Not even once did he forget his vow ; 

But morn and eve he came to view the tree, 

And asked for what he saw its needs to be. 

He prayed for rain, and gentle showers fell ; 

He prayed for sun, and sunshine came as well ; 

And when he asked for dew, there came the dew ; 

For winds to blow, then grateful breezes blew. 

For storm to strengthen, or for heat or cold, 

Whate'er he craved not once did God withhold ; 

And yet in vain the selfish plan he tried : 

For all his prayers, the sapling drooped and died. 

Another monk his tree had planted, too, 
And day by day its spreading branches grew 
Above the way, to shelter as they pass 
God's weary children going up to mass ; 
And travelers oft, aside their burdens laid, 
Sat there and rested in its peaceful shade. 

One day they met among the shadows there, 
Just as the convent bell had called to prayer. 
"Now tell me, Brother John," the first monk said, 
"Why your tree thrives, while mine, alas ! is dead? 
I pruned it well and tended it with care, 
And twice each day I told its needs in prayer." 

The other monk in meekness bowed his head, 
While with a sweet humility he said : 
"My simple mind could not presume to know 
Just what was best to make a sapling grow, 
And so I put it in God's care, and left the rest 
To Him who made the tree, and knows the best ; 



A TASTE OF HEAVEN. 



245 



I never asked for sun or rain or frost, 

I only prayed • ' Give what it needeth most. ' " 

THE HEALING POWER OF FREEDOM. 

Some interesting facts have been discovered about 
the disease of tetanus, commonly called lockjaw. It 
has been discovered that tetanns is an infectious 
disease, due to the action of a microbe; and, altho 
one of the most fatal of diseases, is probably one 
of the most easily preventible in many cases. The 
wound should be thoroughly cleaned and drained as 
only a good surgeon and physician can do it, and 
never by amateurs. Cauterization, the old way of 
treating such wounds, has proved to be a pernicious 
practise because it makes a crust over the wound and 
actually imprisons the microbes, thus promoting in- 
fection. The bacillus of tetanus lives without air, 
or at least is killed by free air. There are many 
social diseases, that are only spread the more widely 
by the cauterization process which has been tried in 
Russia and some other foreign countries, which bid 
fair to come to their death in the free air of American 
public discussion. 

A TASTE OF HEAVEN. 

Heaven is certain only to the man or woman who 
lives in the heavenly spirit here. How beautifully 
Matthew Arnold has sung this truth : 

'Twas August, and the fierce sun overhead 
Smote on the squalid streets of Bethnal Green, 
And the pale weaver, through his windows seen 

In Spitalfields, looked thrice dispirited. 



246 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



I met a preacher there I knew, and said : 
"111 and o'erworked, how fare you in this scene? " 
"Bravely," said he ; " for I of late have been 

Much cheered with thoughts of Christ, the living Bread." 

O human soul ! so long as thou canst so 

Set up a mark of everlasting light 
Above the howling senses' ebb and flow 
To cheer thee, and to right thee if thou roam — 

Not with lost toil thou laborest through the night ! 
Thou mak'st the heaven thou hop'st indeed thy home. 

MISFITS, 

In an address at Fall River, Mass., Captain Sigs- 
bee, whose name will go down to history as the cap- 
tain of the ill-fated Maine at the time of her destruc- 
tion, told a story illustrative of the fact that naval 
men made no pretense at being orators. "It is a 
very difficult situation for me," said Captain Sigsbee, 
"to be required to make a speech, and I am in the 
situation of the old sailor who was very fond of tea, 
and was devoted to the people who served it. But 
this old sailor had no society manners, and had never 
attended an afternoon tea. He was afraid of the 
ladies, but in some way he was forced to an after- 
noon tea. He went almost in despair, and when he 
got back to his ship his mates said: 'Brown, did you 
go to the tea? ' ' I did ! ' 'How did you feel there? ' 
' I felt like a sperm-whale doing crochet work.' " 
There are a great many men who manage to shove 
themselves for life into the wrong pigeon-hole and 
seem never to know how to get out. Parents and 



THE AGE OF LIGHT. 



247 



teachers ought to study carefully the beut and ten- 
dency of the young mind, and give a child a fair 
chance to prepare to do well the thing for which he 
or she is adapted by charter of creation. 

THE GREAT CURSE. 

This strong exhortation of Whittier's, written as 
a battle-cry in another reform, may well be applied 
to the present fight against the liquor-saloon : 

Above the maddening cry for blood, 

Above the wild war-drumming, 
Let Freedom's voice be heard, with good 
The evil overcoming. 

Give prayer and purse 
To stay the Curse 
Whose wrong we share, 
Whose shame we bear, 
Whose end shall gladden Heaven ! 

THE AGE OF LIGHT. 

The locomotives of fast passenger trains in the fu- 
ture will be equipped with powerful electric double- 
ray headlights, designed to give added safety to all 
trains traveling at night. The apparatus is so ar- 
ranged that the engineer in his cab will be able to 
determine the proximity of any train within seeing 
distance, according to atmospheric conditions, by 
looking up in the air as well as along the track 
ahead. This new invention, besides furnishing an 
arc headlight of four thousand candle-power and a 
vertical signal-beam of two thousand candle-power, 
is designed to supply an entire train of sleeping-cars 



248 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



or passenger-coaches with incandescent lights. While 
the apparatus is designed especially for railroad serv- 
ice, it can be used on vessels at sea or by the gov- 
ernment service for signaling and other purposes. 
The most important feature of the system is the plan 
for utilizing a portion of the light as a signal to indi- 
cate, at a distance, the approximate location of a lo- 
comotive approaching from any direction. This sig- 
nal-beam of light can be seen from any point within 
a radius of from five to ten miles, according to the 
weather. This is truly the age of light. Free 
schools, free press, free speech, free Bible — these are 
the great headlights which are finding their way to 
the ends of the earth under the mighty impulse of 
Him who is " the Light of the world. " 

THE BREAD OF LIFE. t 

John S. Browning, in "The Bread of Life," sounds 
a strong note concerning the great supreme mission 
of the pulpit : 

Souls must be fed ! 
When Famine stalks, lean-visaged, through the land 
Men pity the outstretched, imploring hand 

And give it bread, 
The while the people hunger, faint, and die 
Whom naught but Bread of Life can satisfy. 

No empty word 
Can fill the mighty world-heart with content ; 
Ambrosia from Olympus must be sent. 

He shall be heard 
Who has the mountain peaks transfigured trod, 
And brings a message from the living God. 



THE FASCINATIONS OF SIN 249 



THE FASCINATIONS OF SIN. 

An African hunter says that he was once shooting 
in Natal when he saw an instance of the complete 
paralysis of a bird by a snake His attention was 
first attracted by something moving on the branch of 
a tree, about ten feet above the ground, He then 
saw that it was a Cape cobra of the deadly kind, 
standing erect with only the lowest coils of its tail 
around the branch, with its hood expanded, and 
swaying from side to side. On going nearer he saw, 
what he had not noticed before, a pigeon sitting on 
the branch about a yard from the snake. It was 
perfectly motionless, not crouched on the bough, but 
standing up, and made not the slightest attempt to 
fly away. He shot the snake, but neither the fall of 
the creature nor the report seemed to bring it to itself 
at first. After a little it slowly walked along the 
bough into the center of the tree, where it soon re- 
covered from the shock to its nerves. This is said 
to be an authentic case of what is sometimes dis- 
puted, the power of serpents to fascinate birds. 
Whatever may be true in these cases, there is cer- 
tainly abundant evidence to prove the power of the 
evil one to fascinate men and women with certain 
sins, and hold them as if in a stupor of their reason- 
ing faculties until it is too late to save them. It is 
the duty of Christians to seek to break this fatal 
spell by which so many are being destroyed. 



250 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



FLABBINESS IN MANHOOD. 

One of the dangers of our time is that we shall lose 
the iron out of our blood, and not know how to fight 
for righteousness in dead earnest. These volcanic 
words of James Eussell Lowell might well arouse 
those who have to confront some great public sinners 
of our own day : 

Let us speak plain : there is more force in names 
Than most men dream of ; and a lie may keep 
Its throne a whole age longer, if it skulk 
Behind the shield of some fair-seeming name. 
Let us call tyrants tyrants, and maintain 
That only freedom comes by grace of God, 
And all that comes not by his grace must fall ; 
For men in earnest have no time to waste 
In patching fig-leaves for the naked truth. 

THE POWER OF COMMAND. 

A distinguished man recently said : "I should say, 
as a general proposition, that the man who can not 
control himself can not control anybody else. There 
are exceptions to this rule, in the case of some men 
of such superabundant strength that they seem for a 
time to be able to laugh at natural laws and the cus- 
toms of men, to give themselves license and yet com- 
pel restraint in others. But such men are compara- 
tively rare, their reign of power but temporary, and 
they never reach the most exalted heights of author- 
ity. As for the ordinary man — and he is in the very 
great majority among men — he can not expect to 
command at all unless he will first show the power 



BUILT ON THE SAND. 



251 



of absolute command over himself." This is a stri- 
king and graphic comment on the old oft-quoted adage 
of the Bible, that " He that is slow to anger is better 
than the mighty ; and he that ruleth his spirit than 
he that taketh a city." 

SLANDER. 

When it comes to dealing with the sin of slander 
no man cuts with a sharper blade than Shakespeare. 
In the third act of " Cymbeline," he says : 

No, 'tis slander, 
Whose edge is sharper than the sword ; whose tongue 
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile ; whose breath 
Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie 
All corners of the world : kings, queens, and states, 
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave 
This viperous slander enters, 

BUILT ON THE SAND. 

Curious but dangerous freaks of nature are fre- 
quently found in the deserts of Arizona. There are 
found what are called " sumideros " by the Mexicans 
and Indians. They are masked pitfalls of quicksand 
that occur in the dry plains, and are covered with a 
treacherous crust of clay that has been spread over 
them in fine particles by the wind and baked dry by 
the sun. The peculiar properties of the soil retain 
all the moisture drained into them after the infre- 
quent rains, and allow it to be filtered to unknown 
depths, so that a man or a horse or a cow or a sheep 
that once steps on that deceptive crust instantly sinks 
out of sight beyond hope of rescue. The sumideros 



252 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



are on a level with the surface of the desert- There is 
no danger-signal to mark them, and their surface can 
not be distinguished by the ordinary eye from the hard 
clay that surrounds them. They occur most frequent- 
ly in the alkali-covered flats, and are often fifteen or 
twenty feet in diameter. Sometimes they are only 
little pockets or wells that a man can leap across ; 
but the longest pole has never found their bottom. 
A stone thrown through the crust sinks to unknown 
depths, and no man who ever fell into one of them was 
ever rescued, They account for the mysterious disap- 
pearance of many men and cattle. How suggestive 
these sumideros of the desert are of the description 
which Jesus gives of the man who comes to know of 
the Gospel and its salvation and yet does not act on 
it Of him who knows the requirements of the Lord, 
and yet lives as tho he had never heard of them, 
Jesus says : " He shall be likened unto a foolish man, 
which built his house upon the sand: and the rain 
descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, 
and beat upon that house ; and it fell " 

THE HAPPIEST HEART. 

John Vance Cheney sets forth in a pretty way the 
thought that the happiest heart is found in the quiet 
way of life rather than in the midst of the turmoil of 
competition for riches and fame and power : 

Who drives the horses of the sun 

Shall lord it but a day ; 
Better the lowly deed were done, 

And kept the humble way. 



PLENTY OF ROOM AT THE TOP. 253 



The rust will find the sword of fame, 
The dust will hide the crown ; 

Aye, none shall nail so high his name 
Time will not tear it down. 

The happiest heart that ever beat 

Was in some quiet breast 
That found the common daylight sweet, 

And left to heaven the rest. 



PLENTY OF ROOM AT THE TOP. 

In the case of Jacob Gould Schurman, president of 
Cornell University, whom President McKinley made 
chairman of the Philippine Commission, we are called 
to notice that the stairway is still open for every 
young man or young woman of ability and energy 
who is willing to pay the price of noble success. 
Ever since President Schurman was thirteen years 
old he has been compelled to work his own way in 
the world. By hard toil he earned every dollar by 
which he got his education, and kept at it year after 
year until he became one of the great scholars of the 
world. And so it happened that, at thirty-eight 
years of age, a boy who worked in a grocery store for 
three years at thirty dollars a year, and who went 
without his dinner many a time in order to save 
money to buy books, found himself at the head of a 
great university. Let every boy take notice that the 
stairway is open toward the top, and the angels of 
hope and courage, who cheered the heart of Jacob so 
long ago, will not fail to give inspiration to every 
new Jacob who will climb with honest heart and 
faithful purpose. 



254 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



CHRIST'S COMING VICTORY. 

Some one sings of the coming victory of Jesus with 
an optimism and a courage which make the blood burn 
with anticipation. Let us help the coming of that 
glorious day. 

The world swings out toward the light, 

And skies are growing clearer, 
The gray of dawn is on the hills, 

The golden glow grows nearer. 

For ever when the night grows long, 

And human moans ascendeth, 
God's justice strikes the haughty wrong, 

And his long-suffering endeth. 

Since Calvary and Olivet, 

There is no hopeless sorrow ; 
Wrong ever builds a tottering throne, 

And Christ shall reign to-morrow. 

THE VALUE OF AN OPPORTUNITY. 

The great Eothschilds' fortune had its broad foun- 
dation laid by the genius of that member of the fam- 
ily who, mounted on a fleet horse, kept so close to 
Wellington at the battle of Waterloo that the Iron 
Duke muttered a threat to hang "the skulking Jew" 
if he did not keep his distance. Eothschild waited 
only to see the beginning of Napoleon's rout, and 
spurred his steed to Brussels. There he took carriage 
to Ostend. A wild storm was raging, but he paid a 
boatman $500 to ferry him to Dover, and he was in 
London eight hours before the official news of the 



CHRISTIAN KNIGHTHOOD. 255 



great victory. In that eight hours he made millions 
of dollars, and laid the foundation for the greatest 
fortune the world has ever known. Great results 
often depend on the seizing of an opportunity the in- 
stant it is presented. The word opportunity means 
" opposite a port, " and the sailor will soon drift by 
the channel if he does not enter at the right moment. 
Many a man misses salvation that way. " To-day is 
the day of salvation ! " 

CHRISTIAN KNIGHTHOOD. 

Mrs. Farningham has a song of the young boy of 
to-day who bows at the feet of J esus to be set apart 
as a knight of Christ's new chivalry. It is a picture 
to warm one's heart : 

He kneels before the King, 

His yonng head bent ; 
His flashing eyes lid-veiled, 

His heart intent. 
He vows to spend his life 

In true endeavor, 
And he will serve the Christ 

His King forever. 

A touch is on his head 

And on his heart. 
"Arise, my knight," Christ says, 

"And do thy part." 
Who kneels before the King 

In true surrender 
May lift his loyal head 

A brave defender ! 



256 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Ah, loyal heart, toe glad 

Christ calls to thee ; 
Kneel thou before the King — 

Young, strong, and free. 
Go forth, and do not quail 

Where battle rages. 
Christ will knight noblemen 

Through all the ages. 

INSPIRATION TO TOIL. 

A Philadelphia contractor, who has recently re- 
turned from the Sudan, tells an interesting fact con- 
nected with the building by the English of the new 
military railroad in that region. With every gang of 
forty or fifty men are assigned two harpers and a flute - 
player. Music is furnished almost continuously, and 
so long as the musicians play the workmen do not 
seem to feel the fatigue, and their movements are 
conformed as nearly as possible to the time of the 
music. As a general thing the players get tired be- 
fore the workmen do. To a white man the melody 
produced by these cheerers of labor would not be in- 
spiring, for it is peculiarly plaintive. The Africans, 
however, find the music a great inspiration, and work 
with cheerfulness and despatch. The Philadelphian 
declares that the idea is one well worth considering, 
for it is well known that colored laborers and steve- 
dores along the river-front will work harder and faster 
if permitted to sing. There is a noble philosophy in 
all this, and every one of us may take the slavery 
out of our toil by performing it to an accompanying 
melody at the heart. It is not the work we do, so 



THE GOLD GOD. 



257 



much as the spirit in which we do it, that gives it its 
moral quality and dictates the effect it will have upon 
us. 

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUTH. 

Youth is such a receptive period, and its possibili- 
ties of acquiring force for after years are so great, 
that every young person ought to make the very most 
of its strong vital days. Eichard Henry Stoddard 
sings our message : 

There are gains for all our losses, 

There are balms for all our pains ; 
But when youth, the dream, departs, 
It takes something from our hearts, 
And it never comes again. 

We are stronger, and are better, 
Under manhood's sterner reign ; 

Still we feel that something sweet 

Followed youth, with flying feet, 
And will never come again. 

Something beautiful is vanished, 

And we sigh for it in vain ; 
We behold it everywhere, 
On the earth, and in the air ; 

But it never comes again. 

THE GOLD GOD. 

I was traveling recently with an old Jewish mer- 
chant, who had commenced his career in a Western 
city fifty years ago, and who has been accumulating 
money all these years until he is now a millionaire, 
tho as hot in the chase for the dollars as in his 
17 



258 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



younger years. His whole thought and being seemed 
absorbed in the matter of getting money. He told 
me his wife was very different from himself ; she was 
fond of music and books and art. " She came to me 
the other day," said he, "with a book on astronomy 
in her hands, and said: 'Jacob, there is going to be 
a new star; let me read to you about it.' But," 
said the old man, " I answered her by lifting both 
hands and exclaiming: 'Don't bother me, Eebecca! 
I care more about the price of overalls than about all 
the stars in the sky.' " It seemed to me a striking 
illustration of the power of the money-getting in- 
stinct, when given full sway in a man's life, to drown 
out all desire for higher things, 

HOW TO HASTEN CHRIST'S COMING REIGN. 

Sarah Doudney has a striking poem on the coming 
of Jesus among men, that ought to arouse us to help 
on the kingdom of our Lord in the earth : 

When the strife of tongues shall cease, 

And in places still 
Those who seek eternal peace 

Learn to do his will ; 
When the heart begins to speak 

While the lips are dumb, 
And the strong upholds the weak, 

Then the Lord will come. 

When with deeds, not words, we praise 

God in many lands ; 
When m dreary twilight days 

Hands are clasping hands ; 



THE IDEAL PHYSICIAN. 



259 



When through all the clash of creeds 

Truth is speaking clear, 
And the soul knows what it needs, 

Then the Lord is near. 

Every ill that we suppress, 

Every kindness shown, 
Every word of tenderness 

Builds his earthly throne ; 
When the tarnished gold grows bright, 

When old evils die, 
When the spotted robe is white, 

Then the Lord draws nigh. 

When within the heart of doubt 

Hope divine is born ; 
When the altar lights go out 

In the breath of morn ; 
When on rock and desert place 

Love's sweet fruits appear, 
Lift your heads, ye weary race, 

For your Lord is here ! 

THE IDEAL PHYSICIAN, 

Dr. Osier, in an address before the students of the 
Albany Medical College, recently urged them to be 
careful after they get into practise to cultivate equally 
well their hearts and their heads. The doctor says 
there is a strong feeling abroad that doctors are given 
nowadays to science, that they care much more for 
the disease and for the scientific aspect of it than for 
the individual. And so the doctor urges medical stu- 
dents to care more particularly for the individual pa- 
tient than for the special features of the disease. 
"Dealing as we do," he says, "with poor, suffering 



260 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



humanity, we see the man unmasked, exposed to all 
the frailties and weaknesses, and you've got to keep 
your heart pretty soft and pretty tender not to get too 
great a contempt for your fellow creatures, The best 
way to do that is to keep a looking-glass in your own 
hearts, and the more carefully you scan your own 
frailties, the more tender you are for the frailties of 
your fellow creatures " Christ is the ideal Physician 
because he never looks on us with contempt. Be- 
neath all the weakness and frailty of human nature 
he beholds the divine values that are worth every 
sacrifice. 

CHRIST OUR REFUGE. 

Christ is a refuge to which every tried soul may 
flee and find certain safety. The gates of love to his 
heart are always open and the enemy of souls is never 
able to keep the sincere penitent from finding the way 
in. It was the consciousness of this refuge which 
many years ago enabled a French nobleman, who was 
kept in a dungeon of the king merely because of his 
religion, to sing the beautiful words of Margaret of 
Valois : 

O Refuge helpful, safe, accessible, 

For all afflicted, and the orphan's Judge, 

Treasure of consolation ever full, 

These iron doors, these drawbridges, 

That barrier that now encloses me, 

Keep me far removed from neighbors, 

Brothers, sisters, and kind friends, 

Nevertheless, where'er I may be placed, 

Contrivance none can shut the door 

So close that in the instant thou art not with me. 



A CALL FOR EARNESTNESS. 261 



A UNIVERSAL COIN. 

For many years commercial men of all nationalities 
have spoken and written on the subject of the intro- 
duction of a system of coinage which should have a 
universal standard. The proposition has failed to 
meet with success on account of the difficulty of per- 
suading the people of different countries to abandon 
their own systems of coinage, which appear to them 
part and parcel of themselves as much as their lan- 
guage itself. But a distinguished financier has re- 
cently said that the time seems approaching when it 
will be possible for the great nations of the earth to 
meet in convention and adopt a coin which shall be 
cosmopolitan. In the moral and social world honesty 
and truth as the basis of manhood and womanhood are 
a universal coin. Through all the civilized world 
they are never below par in any land, 

A CALL FOR EARNESTNESS. 

Nothing great is ever accomplished by people who 
are overcautious and too prudent Real achievement 
demands great earnestness of spirit that dares every- 
thing to accomplish the end in view. Browning real- 
ized this when he said : 

Some one shall somehow run amuck 
With this old world, for want of strife 
Sound asleep. Contrive, contrive 
To rouse us, Waring ! Who's alive? 
Our men scarce seem in earnest now. 



262 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



WITHOUT SPOT OR BLEMISH. 

One of the largest stones ever quarried, until re- 
cently, in this country was the monolith for the Gen- 
eral Worth monument erected in New York. This 
shaft weighed one hundred and seventy-five tons 
when quarried. After it was all ready for erection, 
having been quarried at an enormous expense, it was 
found to contain a slight defect, and the contractors 
were obliged to furnish another. How sad the trag- 
edy when a human character has passed through all 
the workshops of life and is at last thrown aside be- 
cause of defects which have been overlooked amid the 
dusty and noisy experiences of this world's quarry. 
Let us be careful that there in nothing covered up that 
will humiliate us in the blazing light of the judgment- 
day. 

WEALTH IN APPRECIATION* 

The appreciative soul is always a rich soul. The 
man or woman who cultivates the part of observation 
and appreciation, whether rich or poor on the tax-as- 
sessors' books, owns all the beauty and glory of every 
land. Mrs. Farningham sings this great truth after 
telling of the splendid garden, which is, however, the 
property of her friend : 

The garden is my friend's, not mine, 

But fragrance, song, and flower 
And lifted leaf, and climbing vine 

Are mine for any hour. 



THE POWER OF PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 263 



Here birds to me their message bring, 

Buds make their secrets known, 
And I can in the garden sing 

As if it were my own. 
What matter who the owners be? 
To-day it gives its best to me. 

I have no tree in any grove, 

Yet all the world is mine, 
Since God has given me power to love, 

And see his works divine. 
I joy in what my friends possess 

And God my Father grants ; 
His light shall cheer, his word shall bless, 

His hand supply my wants. 
The world shall be a garden fair 
Because his love is everywhere. 

THE POWER OF PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 

A recent writer has well said that type can not con- 
vey the most important thing in an address, the speak- 
er' s personality. To get the full impression of his 
ideas we need, not merely to hear what he says, 
but to see and hear how he says it. Frequently a 
man's words are only what the wire is to the electric 
current — a means of conveying forces and impressions 
and inspiration. Hearing the words only, you only 
have a lifeless wire. It is because of this that the 
printing-press will never supersede the human tongue 
as the instrument for propagating the Gospel. The 
speaker's personality and temper give to his words 
wings. Through the spoken word the hearer is 
brought into immediate relation with the speaker's 
character, conviction, and weight of manhood. Per- 



264 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



sonal forces touch personal forces through the spoken 
word. No merchant who is solicitous to receive an 
important order would think of negotiating it even 
through a telephone, if personal impression is to be a 
factor in influencing his customer's decision. He 
wants to see him or to have some one who adequately 
represents him see him face to face There is not 
likely to be any means discovered quite so potent in 
influencing men as the spoken word In winning 
men to Christ the Christian needs to take into account 
all the weight of this matter of personal force. He 
should use it all loyally for his Lord. 

MOTHERHOOD AND THE POETS. 

Many poets have written beautifully of motherhood, 
and have laid sweet lines at the feet of their own 
mothers. Cowper wrote on the death of his mother : 

My mother ! when I learned that thou wast dead, 
Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed ; 
Hover'd thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son? — 
Wretch even then, life's journey just begun. 

N. P. Willis sang: 

My mother's voice ! how often creep 

Its accents o'er my lonely hours ! 
Like healing, sent on wings of sleep, 

Or dew to the unconscious flowers. 

Coleridge wrote : 



A mother is a mother still, 
The holiest thing alive. 



COMMONPLACE HEROES. 265 



COMMONPLACE HEROES. 

The world could not be so rich in heroes of the 
type of Hobson and Dewey and Roosevelt, and many 
others one might mention whose names have been on 
the public tongue recently, if it were not that the 
common soil of our modern life is rich in heroes 
whose names never get before the public. Eecently 
there was a fire in the Clear Creek mine in Utah. 
The men were called out. They were about to shut 
off the air in order to stop the flames, when it was 
learned that a single miner was working deep in the 
mine beyond the point where the fire started and was 
then raging with growing strength. The foreman 
immediately called for volunteers to go with him into 
the mine to rescue the man. Several attempts were 
made by different ones, but they were driven back by 
the flames. Finally Heber Franklin, a young man 
whose work keeps him on the outside, said : " I will 
go " ; and accompanying Foreman Thomas he passed 
on through the fire and found the man working away 
tamping a hole, entirely unconscious of the danger 
threatening him. They succeeded in getting out of 
the mine safely, and the fan was shut off and the dip 
closed up. The rescue was an act of great bravery 
on the part of Franklin, as his work kept him on the 
outside, and he was unacquainted with the exact lay 
of the land inside, and the danger of suffocation from 
black damp was great. Ten minutes more of lost 
time would have resulted in the death of the miner 
who was thus saved. Thus it is that opportunities 



266 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



for heroism come within the reach of us all. We 
should live day by day in such sublime confidence in 
God, realizing that the only true safety lies in so do- 
ing our duty that the heroic act will seem natural to 
us. 

THE BLESSINGS OF SORROW. 

Peter Morrison sings a very striking song entitled 
"The Afterward of Sorrow." The poem was in- 
spired by the following text : " Therefore, behold, I 
will . . . bring her into the wilderness, and speak 
comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vine- 
yards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door 
of hope " (Hosea ii. 14, 15) . 

I. 

" My world, Lord, is a wilderness " — 

So wailed my weary heart — • 
" A barren land of blazing sand, 
Oh, speak the word, ' Depart ! ' 
Why linger I 
Beneath the sky 
To ' Water ' cry 
In vain ? " 

n. 

"My life, Lord, is one long despair"— 

So sobbed my sin-stained heart— 
"This cairn of shame has killed my name, 
Oh, speak the word, ' Depart ! ' 
Since Hope is fled, 
Better be dead 
Than Effort wed 
In vain ! " 



THE BEST LOVING-CUP. 



267 



in. 

I ceased, and thou didst answer make 

To my complaining fear : 
"The vine that yields the richest wine 
Grows in thy desert drear ; 
Thou canst not see 
The joy to be 
Distilled for thee 
From pain. 

IV. 

" Despair not of thyself, O man, 

Till I despair of thee ; 
And in Achor an open door 
Of Hope thou yet shalt see. 
This sinful heap 
That makes thee weep 
Thy soul shall keep 
From death ! " 

V. 

The years have come, the years have gone ; 

And glad experience cries : 
"My strengths of life were born of strife, 
My joys of weeping eyes. 
Lord, pardon me, 
For now I see 
Thy word to be 
In truth." 

THE BEST LOVING-CUP. 

The gold loving-cup presented by New York City 
to Admiral Dewey is Roman in form, and made en- 
tirely of eighteen- carat gold. The three handles are 
three dolphins, beautifully wrought in green gold. 
Around the neck of the cup, as in the firmament, 



268 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



cluster forty-five stars — the sisterhood of States — ex- 
tending a greeting to its greatest hero. A finely- 
wrought relief portrait of Admiral Dewey, sur- 
rounded by a wreath of oak leaves and green gold, 
the whole resting upon an eagle with outstretched 
wings, adorns the front panel. The cup will stand 
about thirteen inches high and will rank as the rich- 
est gold loving-cup ever made in this country. That 
is certainly a very rare and beautiful cup, and no 
doubt Admiral Dewey will highly regard it, and his 
friends will esteem it a great honor if permitted to 
drink from it. But there is a better loving-cup than 
that. It is the one spoken of by our Lord at the 
Last Supper, when he assured his disciples that the 
time should come when they should eat and drink at 
his table in his kingdom. What a loving-cup that 
will be from which the ransomed and redeemed hosts 
shall drink in fellowship with Christ in heaven ! 

THE OPENED HEAVENS. 

Tennyson pictures the opening of the heavens to 
Stephen in his hour of martyrdom, and how "God's 
glory smote him on the face." His song gives us 
courage to believe that a like revelation may come to 
every brave soul that trusts God and is loyal to duty : 

I can not hide that some have striven, 
Achieving calm, to whom was given 
The joy that mixes man with Heaven : 

Who, rowing hard against the stream, 
Saw distant gates of Eden gleam, 
And did not dream it was a dream ; 



AN ELEMENT OF TRUE GREATNESS. 269 



But heard, by secret transport led, 
Ev'n in the charnels of the dead, 
The murmur of the fountain-head — 

Which did accomplish their desire, 
Bore and forbore, and did not tire, 
Like Stephen, an unquenche'd fire. 

He heeded not reviling tones, 

Nor sold his heart to idle moans, 

Tho cursed and scorned, and bruised with stones ; 

But looking upward, full of grace, 
He prayed, and from a happy place 
God's glory smote him on the face. 

ACKNOWLEDGING MISTAKES AN ELEMENT OF 
TRUE GREATNESS. 

An editorial writer in a leading daily newspaper, 
commenting on Gov. Theodore Roosevelt's conduct 
in promptly acknowledging a mistake he had made 
through ignorance, says: "The frank admission of 
the error, the confession that it was due to want of 
information, not merely disarms criticism, it gives 
the governor a new hold on the respect and on the 
affections of his fellow citizens. To make a mistake 
is easy enough for most of us; to stick to it is 
the temptation of too many; candidly to admit it 
and undo it is the fruit of a manly virtue which 
is not too common." One of the distinctions be- 
tween the great man and the little man is that the 
truly great man is simple-minded and honest, and 
knows that there is a vast difference between stub- 
bornness and right. The man who goes ahead in a 



270 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



wrong course after he has found out his error is of 
the sort described by the wise man of Scripture in the 
oft-quoted words, " Seest thou a man wise in his own 
conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him." 

THE GLORY OF COMMON THINGS. 

Some unknown poet brings out strongly that it is 
the common things, within the reach of all, on which 
after all we must rely for the true beauty and glory 
of living : 

Give me, dear Lord, thy magic common things, 

Which all can see, which all may share, 
Sunlight and dewdrops, grass and stars and sea, 

Nothing unique or new, and nothing rare. 

Just daisies, knapweed, wind among the thorns ; 

Some clouds to cross the blue old sky above ; 
Rain, winter fires, a useful hand, a heart, 

The common glory of a woman's love. 

Then, when my feet no longer tread old paths 
(Keep them from fouling sweet things anywhere), 

Write one old epitaph in grace-lit words : 
"Such things look fairer that he sojourned here." 

SIN'S DEATH-GULCH. 

In the northeast corner of the Yellowstone National 
Park there is a gloomy ravine which has won the ugly 
name of the Death-Gulch. There oozes out from the 
base of the mountain-slopes water which is colored 
by a creamy white deposit of sulphate of alumina, 
which is death to animal life. A recent visitor pass- 
ing through this weird and dismal place found a large 



EVERY MAN IN HIS PLACE. 



271 



number of recumbent bears which, had met their death 
by drinking this water. How many there are among 
men and women who find their untimely end in the 
death-gulch of sin. Its waters fascinate and please 
the taste at first, but poison and death are in them. 

THE DIFFERENCE. 

It is a far cry from the man who seeks to find the 
best in everything to that distant planet where lives 
the man who seeks to find the worst in everything 
that comes into the daily experience. E, C. Trench 
sings about it some illuminating lines : 

Some murmur when their sky is clear 

And wholly bright to view, 
If one small speck of dark appear 

In their great heaven of blue. 
And some with thankful love are fhTd 

If but one streak of light, 
One ray of God's good mercy, gild 

The darkness of their night. 

EVERY MAN IN HIS PLACE. 

A famous archeologist went to his club recently, 
his countenance disfigured at several points with 
sticking-plaster. There was a general inquiry among 
his friends as to what was the matter. " Razor," said 
the professor briefly. "Good gracious! Where 
were you shaved? " asked one of the younger mem- 
bers sympathetically. "It's a strange thing," said 
the man of learning. "I was shaved this morning 
by a man who really is, I suppose, a little above the 



272 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



ordinary barber, I know of my own knowledge that 
he took a Double First Class at Oxford, that he 
studied at Heidelberg afterward, and spent several 
years in other foreign educational centers. I know 
also of my own knowledge that he has contributed 
scientific articles to our best magazines, and has num- 
bered among his intimate friends men of the highest 
social and scientific standing. And yet," said the 
savant, "he can't shave a man decently." "What 
is he a barber for," exclaimed the younger man, "with 
all those accomplishments?" "Oh! he isn't a bar- 
ber ! " said the bookworm, yawning. " You see, I 
shaved myself to-day." There are a great many men 
who get into the wrong pigeonhole. It is very im- 
portant that a man's individuality should be studied 
in the selection of a trade or a profession. A great 
deal of the world's sorrow would be prevented if that 
were done. 

FOLLOWING CHRIST. 

In keeping close to Jesus we shall find everything 
we need. This is not often made more comfortingly 
clear than in these beautiful verses by Whittier : 

Deep strike thy roots, O Heavenly Vine, 

Within our earthly sod ! 
Most human and yet most Divine — 

The flowe^ of man and God. 

Apart from thee all gain is loss, 

All labor vainly done ; 
The solemn shadow of thy cross 

Is better than the sun. 



VALUE OF A DEFINITE PURPOSE IN LIFE. 273 



Our Friend, our Brother, and our Lord, 

What may thy service be? 
Nor name, nor form, nor ritual word, 

But simply following thee. 

THE VALUE OF A DEFINITE PURPOSE IN LIFE* 

A very wealthy and eccentric woman recently died 
in a Western city. Her money was mostly in gov- 
ernment bonds, which were kept in a strong-box at 
her banker's. Every week or so a clerk from the 
bank would carry the box to her home, and she would 
examine her papers. The strangest of her eccentrici- 
ties was her fondness for buying things at bargain 
sales. She was a close reader of the papers, and 
when she saw a bargain sale advertised she always 
ordered her carriage and attended it. She bought 
freely of everything which happened to strike her 
fancy, taking the parcels home in her carriage. Once 
she got into the house she lost interest in her purchases. 
They were piled in a vacant room, and were never 
even opened. After her death this room was found 
nearly filled with these purchases, wrapped and tied 
just as they were when they left the bargain-counters. 
Not one had been disturbed. There were hundreds 
of bundles, and the examination showed that they had 
cost many thousands of dollars , There are some people 
who go through life like that. Their life is a hodge- 
podge, made up of all sorts of things that attract them 
temporarily. Such a life is a pitiful failure. Life 
on earth is so short that if we are to make a real suc- 
cess of it we must have some great and worthy pur- 
18 



274 



POETRY AND MORALS, 



pose and turn all our energies that way. We can not 
afford to fritter away our time or energy on insignifi- 
cant matters. 

THE MOTHER'S HOUR. 

No mother should ever give up to any one her sacred 
privilege of teaching holy lessons to her children as 
they lie down in the embrace of sleep at night. 
Some of the most forceful men and women who have 
ever lived have gratefully acknowledged their in- 
debtedness for all that was noblest in them to the im- 
pressions made on their youthful minds and hearts by 
a Christian mother in that twilight hour. Mrs. Sang- 
ster sings about it a sympathetic song. The picture 
goes deep into our hearts : 

Little figures robed in white, 
Mellow glow of candle-light ; 

Little hands upraised in prayer, 
Roses sweet and fair. 

All the work and play and fun 
For the happy day are done ; 

All the little faults confessed ; 
All the troubles set at rest. 

Childhood, sweet as dawn of flowers. 
Drifts through many changeful hours ; 

But one hour, the mother's own, 
Must belong to her alone ; 

When she sees each sunny head - 
Safe and cozy in its bed. 



REAL WORTH. 



275 



When the world may do its worst, 
God and she have had them first, 

And her bairns are folded fair 
In the tender Shepherd's care. 

Angels bend above the room 
Where the dimpled darlings bloom 

In their lovely innocence, 
Warding every evil hence 

From the little ones who dwell 
Where the mother guards them well. 

God and she about them stand, 
They are safe on every hand. 

Kneeling for them at the throne 
They are hers and God's alone. 

And each child, a tender flower, 
Blossoms in the mother's hour. 

REAL "WORTH. 

A farmer boy named Steve went away from home 
to the city, and in the course of years became a very 
successful railroad man. One warm summer day he 
found himself at home on a little vacation. He was 
seated under the old apple-tree, with the half of a 
red-hearted watermelon in his lap. His father, busy 
with the other half, paused now and then to ask Steve 
about his new job, and what he paid for his fine 
clothes. Presently he wanted to know what they 
called his boy on the road — conductor, brakeman, or 
what? "They call me the General Freight Agent, 
father," said Steve. "That's a mighty big name, 



276 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Steve." "Yes, father; it's rather a big job too, for 
me." "But you don't do it all, Steve. You must 
have hands to help you load and unload?" "Oh! 
yes, I have a lot of help." "And the company pays 
them all? " "Yes." "How much do they pay you, 
Steve — two dollars a day? " Steve almost strangled 
on a piece of melon, and the old gentleman saw that he 
had guessed too low. "Three dollars?" he ven- 
tured. "More than that father." "You don't mean 
to say they pay you as much as five? " " Yes, father, 
— more than twenty -five." The old man let his 
watermelon fall between his knees, stared at his boy, 
and whistled. Then a serious look came in the old 
man's face, and leaning forward, he asked earnestly, 
" Say, Steve, are you worth it? " Every man ought 
to ask himself the serious question concerning every 
success that comes to him in life, whether he is giv- 
ing value received to the world in service for the suc- 
cess it confers upon him. 

THE CROWN OF THORNS. 

Gerald Massey sings a very helpful song for all 
who are in the midst of hard trials. We should not 
think it is because God has forgotten us, for even the 
Christ was crowned with thorns : 

Ho, ye who in a noble work 

Win scorn, as flames draw air, 
And in the way where lions lurk 

God's image bravely bear, — 
Tho trouble-tried and torture-torn, 
The kingliest kings are crowned with thorn. 



WASTE OF EMOTION. 



277 



Life's glory, like the bow in heaven, 

Still springeth from the cloud ; 
And soul ne'er soared the starry Seven 

But Pain's fire-chariot rode. 
They've battled best who've boldliest borne : 
The kingliest kings are crowned with thorn. 

The martyr's fire-crown on the brow 

Doth into glory burn ; 
And tears that from love's torn heart flow 

To pearls of spirit turn. 
Our dearest hopes in pangs are born, 
The kingliest kings are crowned with thorn. 

As beauty in death's cerement shrouds, 

And stars bejewel night, 
God-splendors live in dim heart-clouds, 

And suffering worketh might. 
The murkiest hour is mother o' morn, 
The kingliest kings are crowned with thorn. 

"WASTE OF EMOTION. 

In California, where so much of the land requires 
irrigation, there is a serious effort being made to de- 
vise some scheme by which the water that goes to 
waste in times of flood can be stored up and used in 
times of drought. It has long been known that 
enough flood-water flows back to the sea in the rainy 
season to more than multiply the State's resources 
for irrigation. Therefore it is felt that if some sys- 
tem is workable whereby flood-waters can be im- 
pounded and saved from waste, hundreds of thou- 
sands of acres of now useless lands may be made 
fruitful. What a wonderful thing it would be if 
some such scheme could be devised in the higher 



278 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



realm of human emotion ! There is enough real heart 
benevolence stirred up to fill the land with kindness, 
and bring about human brotherhood everywhere. 
But it often goes to waste without producing any- 
practical result. Many people are moved to tears by 
a novel or the story of some suffering fellow being, 
and for a time there is a flood of charitable feeling 
that surges through the soul ; but it runs to waste, 
and when opportunity for real helpfulness comes the 
emotion has passed away. 

CHRIST LOVES YOU. 

The apostle declares that we love Christ because he 
first loved us. Mrs. Farningham brings out very 
clearly that personal love of God for each one of us : 

One loves you. He has loved you long. 

His love and its sweet prayer and praise 
Were in your mother's cradle song, 

And made the music of your days 
When flowers were fair, and skies were blue 
For love of you. 

He told the secret of his love 
When merry laughter answered him, 

By dancing seas, in leafy grove, 
Before your childhood's eyes were dim, 

When life lay like a sunny view 
For love of you. 

Now, has the shadow touched your face? 

Are the days dark? the prospects gray? 
Oh heart, he brave ! The time of grace 

Can never pass from you away. 
Your Friend is tender, wise, and true 
For love of you. 



THE EMPTY CRADLE. 



279 



He walked for you earth's changeful ways, 

He bore for you the lonely hour, 
He lived for you through toilsome days, 

He met for you the tempter's power, 
And joy through sorrow this Friend knew 
For love of you. 

Oh, child of love, be not still sad, 

But change the sigh to happy song, 
For you can make the Savior glad 

By loving him who loved you long. 
So fill with praise the heavens above, 
For God is love. 

THE ALERT EYE. 

Broom-corn first grew in India. From there it was 
carried to Europe. Dr. Benjamin Franklin was once 
examining a whisk-broom that had been brought over 
from England in the days before we had any broom- 
corn of our own. He found a single seed on the 
broom, picked it off, planted it, and raised a stock of 
com from which is descended all the broom-corn of 
the United States. Franklin was one of the men 
whose eyes were always alert for possible opportuni- 
ties to enrich his time and the world. The people of 
the observing eye and the alert mind and heart are 
those to whom opportunities do not come in vain. 

THE EMPTY CRADLE. 

Almost every mother knows the full meaning of 
these three sad little words, "the empty cradle," 
from which God has taken the gift he seems to have 



280 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



lent only long enough to take away with it a mother's 
heart. Some poet sings : 

He sleeps. Who sleeps? 
You do not know? 
And I must tell you, soft and low, 
My little baby sleepeth so. 

He sleeps so late, — My baby sleeps, 

Nor smiles nor weeps. 
The noon upon the morn doth wait, 
The sun shines full upon the gate— 
The bees and birds are in full tune, 
And summer life is at its noon. 

My heart doth break. 

My baby never will awake ! 

He sleeps. 
The tender eve draws near, 
The lights of home are shining clear, 
But in the churchyard dark and drear 

My little baby sleeps. 

KINDNESS OF THE LIVING. 

Not long since, on the top of the beautiful Appe- 
nines, near Florence, in that Italian Switzerland 
which is called the Abertone because of the great 
number of fir-trees, a marble tablet was unveiled in 
memory of Count Telfener. His career is worthy of 
note. He was born in Italy, but when very young 
went to Texas, where, by building railways, he made 
a rapid and colossal fortune. He returned home with 
his head full of projects for the benefit of his country. 
As soon as he arrived in Eome he built himself a mag- 
nificent villa, and intended to spend his vast wealth 



FAILURE AND SUCCESS. 281 



for the good of Eome. But the people misunderstood 
his eccentricities, and treated him coldly. One could 
not bear him because his mother's diamonds- were too 
big; one objected to the way he wore his hair, an- 
other to the cut of his coat, and the general dislike 
culminated in the annuling of his election to Parlia- 
ment without a shadow of a reason. He disappeared 
from Eome, and the next heard from him was that 
he had built the railway which revealed the beauties 
of the Appenines to travelers, conferring untold riches 
and benefit on the whole district. Now that he is dead 
cabinet ministers, senators, and princes gather to un- 
veil this tablet rendering him honors one fifth of which 
would have made his misunderstood life radiantly 
happy. Alas ! There are too many who wait until 
after people are dead before they speak the kind and 
appreciative word. It is better to speak it while 
people live, and thus not only give them happiness, 
but stimulate them to still nobler deeds. 



FAILURE AND SUCCESS* 

Eichard Watson Gilder strikes a true note in his 
little poem entitled "Failure and Success." The 
man who stands faithfully to the right and does his 
duty must in the long run win success, tho all the 
earth in his day count him a failure : 

He fails who climbs to power and place 
Up the pathway of disgrace. 
He fails not who makes truth his cause, 
Nor bends to win the crowd's applause. 



282 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



He fails not — he who stakes his all 
Upon the right and dares to fall. 
What tho the living bless or blame, 
For him the long success of fame. 

THE WASTAGE OF LIFE. 

In connection with Cecil Rhodes' s colossal wealth, 
there is a story told by an old miner, himself lately 
a colonial minister of finance, which illustrates at 
least one trait in the character of the great South 
African financier and politician. During the early 
days of the Kimberley diggings it was the custom 
when a miner found a particularly fine gem to invite 
those about him to the ceremony of "wetting the 
stone." This meant to drink champagne at the find- 
ers' expense, with the idea that it would bring good 
luck in the discovery of another treasure. In the ad- 
joining claim to that first taken up by Mr. Rhodes, in 
the very center of the crater holding the precious blue 
dirt, this invitation had upon a certain occasion gone 
forth, and the men were going their way up to the 
hotel, when it was noticed that Rhodes stood aloof. 
" Hallo ! come on Rhodes ! " shouted the lucky 
finder of the gem. "Aren't you coming up to 1 wet 
the stone ' for good luck? " To which, however, 
Cecil Rhodes only shook his head. " I say, come on ; 
there's a good fellow," persisted his neighbor. 
"What are you going to do? " asked Rhodes, looking 
up, "Wet the stone with champagne, of course." 
"Well," replied the future magnate decisively, "I 
did not come out here to drink champagne, but to 



MAN'S INJUSTICE. 



283 



make money," and then went on with his work. 
That Mr. Rhodes has succeeded in that purpose, 
probably beyond all flights of his imagination, is now 
a matter of history, and depended very largely, no 
doubt, on the fact that he kept his great brain clear 
of strong drink. We would stand back affrighted if 
we could see the magnificent personalities which are 
thrown every year on the waste-heap of human life 
through drunkenness, 

MAN'S INJUSTICE. 

Wordsworth voices with brilliant note the fact that 
in God's world everything is beautiful until man's 
inhumanity to his brother throws a pall of sorrow and 
gloom over it. He says : 

I heard a thousand blended notes, 

While in a grove I sat reclined, 
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts 

Bring sad thoughts to the mind. 

To her fair works did Nature link 
The human soul that through me ran ; 

And much it grieved my heart to think 
What man has made of man. 

Through primrose tufts in that green bower 

The periwinkle trail'd its wreaths ; 
And 'tis my faith that every flower 

Enjoys the air it breathes. 

The birds around me hopp'd and play'dj 
Their thoughts I can not measure : — 

But the least motion which they made, 
It seem'd a thrill of pleasure. 



284 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



The budding twigs spread out their fans 

To catch the breezy air ; 
And I must think, do all I can. 

That there was pleasure there. 

If this belief from Heaven be sent, 

If such be Nature's holy plan, 
Have I not reason to lament 

What man has made of man? 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ATMOSPHERE OF 
LIFE. 

One of the leading weather-bureau officers recently- 
said that at no distant day the daily weather predic- 
tion will possess much greater significance than at 
present. We shall then scan the bulletin not only 
to find out whether to postpone a picnic or to carry 
an umbrella, but also to gain a clue to the probable 
conduct of our fellow beings, whose behavior, accord- 
ing to modern theory, varies with variations in tem- 
perature, humidity, and the velocity of the wind. To 
the physician certain weather indications will prove a 
warning of danger to patients hovering between life 
and death ; to the teacher that her pupils will be un- 
ruly or stupid ; to the chief of police they will indi- 
cate a day of assaults, murders, and suicides ; to the 
keeper of a penitentiary or insane asylum, a time of 
extra watchfulness over his wards to avert fractious 
outbreaks ; to the banker a change in the weather may 
bring anxiety lest serious errors creep into his accounts 
or affect financial calculations. That climate and 
weather influence feeling and conduct is universally 
admitted. There is a soul-climate as well as a body- 



THE LESSER MINISTRIES. 



285 



climate. Christianity produces a moral atmosphere 
in which the spiritual graces blossom and put forth 
their growth with springtime energy. Many a man 
when called to be a Christian does not take into ac- 
count the divine influence of this religious climate 
into which the Christian life would bring him. 

THE LESSER MINISTRIES. 

James Buckham brings out in a very clear light 
the exceedingly comfortable truth that the lesser min- 
istries of love lie within the reach of the humblest, and 
may be as certain evidence of love as the greater gift 
of the strong and rich : 

A flower upon my threshold laid, 

A little kindness wrought unseen ; 
I know not who love's tribute paid, 
I only know that it has made 

Life's pathway smooth, life's borders green. 

God bless the gracious hands that e'er 

Such tender ministries essay ! 
Dear hands that helped the pilgrim bear 
His load of weariness and care 

More bravely up the toilsome way. 

Oh, what a little thing can turn 

A heavy heart from sighs to song ! 
A smile can make the world less stern ; 
A word can cause the soul to burn 

With glow of heaven all night long ! 

It needs not that love's gift be great — 

Some splendid jewel of the soul 
For which a king might supplicate. 
Nay ! true love's least, at love's true rate, 

Is tithe most royal of the whole. 



286 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



CLEANSING POWER. 

Lake Titicaca in South America has the peculiar 
quality that prevents metal from rusting in its waters. 
A chain or an anchor or any article of ordinary iron 
can be thrown into it and remain for weeks, and when 
it is hauled up it will be as clean and bright as when 
it came from the foundry. And, what is stranger 
still, rust that has been formed upon metallic objects 
elsewhere will peel off when immersed in its waters. 
This is frequently noticed by railway and steamship 
men. Eusty car-wheels and rails, and even machin- 
ery, can be brightened by soaking them in the waters 
of this lake. There is a fountain that has the power 
to cleanse the stains of sin and guilt from the human 
heart. Cowper sings about it in his famous hymn : 

There is a fountain filled with blood 

Drawn from Immanuel's veins ; 
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, 

Lose all their guilty stains. 

FAITH IN GOD, 

When Dr. W. S. McKenzie lay ill in the hospital 
in Boston, not expecting to live, he said to a friend : 
" Those verses I wrote on ' Faith in God ? exactly ex- 
press my state of mind. 7 ' The poem which thus ex- 
pressed his faith in the presence of death is as fol- 
lows: 

Thy will, O God, my lot ordains, 

Whate'er my lot in life may be ; 
My faith in thee its grasp retains, 

However harsh seems thy decree. 



A POSITIVE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 287 



I know not what thy ways portend, 
But this I know, thou art my Friend, 

And in my need thy help is near ; 
I know that thou canst ne'er deceive 
The soul that will in thee believe — 

Then what have I from thee to fear? 

My faith, God, in thee is stayed, 

Tho darkness veils thee from my sight ; 
No threatening ills make me afraid, 

For faith finds shelter in thy might. 
In deepest gloom, when most forlorn, 
I glimpse the reddening flush of morn, 

When lowering night shall flee away. 
My faith for me a victory wins, 
On earth my heavenly bliss begins — 

A foregleam of eternal day. 

In strife sometimes my courage fails, 

But faith makes weakened valor strong ; 
When hell-born doubt my mind assails, 

Then chants my faith the victor's song. 
More faith in God, more faith, I crave, 
To vanquish fear, to make me brave, 

When raging tempests round me roar : 
More faith, to wing my faltering feet, 
To make my heavenward steps more fleet, 

Until I tread the shining shore. 

A POSITIVE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 

It seems certain that the Great Salt Lake is slowly 
drying np. The reason is that the rivers which fur- 
nish it its waters are being used to irrigate arid land 
and bring it into cultivation. All the water for the 
irrigation of the Jordan valley comes from the rivers 
which feed the lake. These streams utilized for ir- 
rigation are making of a desert some of the most 



288 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



fertile farming settlements in the world. When the 
Great Salt Lake is gone it will be missed as a wonder 
and as a salt-factory, but for little else. Its waters 
destroy vegetation instead of nourishing it. So it 
will be a good exchange to trade the old Salt Lake 
for new and living lands of green farms along the 
streams which once fed it. The best way to kill off 
evil deposits in human society is to turn the energies 
of the people into ways of righteousness. Paul had 
something of this in his mind when he said to the 
Galatians : " Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not ful- 
fil the lust of the flesh." 

THE THANKSGIVING COLUMN. 

Few Christians have any idea how great is the mul- 
titude of God's mercies until something arouses them 
to add up their causes for thanksgiving. It always 
does us good to add up the thanksgiving column, and 
Mrs. Farningham has written a poem which will help 
us by putting us in remembrance of many things we 
are likely to forget : 

For the discipline of sorrow, 

For the angel of distress, 
For the unseen hands that draw us 

Into greater blessedness ; 
For the lips that close in silence, 

For the strong hands clasped in prayer, 
For the strength of heart that suffers 

But sinks not in despair ; 
For the penitence and patience 

That are meek beneath the rod, 
And for hope's glad resurrection, 

We give thee thanks, O God. 



THE THANKSGIVING COLUMN. 



For the courage and endurance 

That can bear a fearful strain, 
For the self-restraint and fortitude 

That will not yield to pain ; 
For the good, brave-hearted mothers, 

For the loyalty of wives, 
For the men who at their country's call 

Have offered up their lives ; 
For the love that loves for trouble's sake 

In all our lands and ranks, 
And the generous help of far-off kin, 

O God, we give thee thanks. 

For the many men and women 

Who have no heart for song, 
Who mourn and weep in silence 

Because of war and wrong ; 
Who can hate none for whom Christ died, 

Whichever name they bear, 
But must for foes as well as friends 

Fill the sad days with prayer ; 
For the hearts to peace surrendered, 

And full of love's accord, 
Tho the fight be fiercely raging, 

We give thee thanks, O Lord ! 

For the hope that right shall triumph, 

For the lifting of the race, 
For the victories of justice, 

For a coming day of grace, 
For the lessons taught by failure 

Learned in humbleness and pain, 
For the call to lofty duties 

That will come to us again, 
For the hope that those who trust in God 

Shall not be put to shame — 
For the faith that lives in England, 

God, we praise thy name. 

19 



290 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



RICH, BUT A BEGGAR. 

An old Italian beggar was arrested and brought be- 
fore the police court in New York City recently as a 
vagrant. On searching him the police were surprised 
to find in the lining of his hat several dollars in pen- 
nies and nickels. Searching further they found ten- 
dollar gold-pieces, and a large roll of bills amounting 
to one hundred and eighty-seven dollars met their 
gaze. Many people who do not stand at the street 
corner to beg nevertheless live in the beggar's spirit. 
They take all that God gives -to them, but live with- 
out thanksgiving or appreciation of his rich mercies. 

THE RISEN CHRIST. 

Eichard Watson Gilder brings out in clear relief the 
fact that Christ's presence in our heart proves his res- 
urrection to be a certainty : 

The Lord is risen indeed, 

He is here for your love, for your need — 

Not in the grave nor the sky, 

But here, where men live and die ; 

And true the word that was said, 

"Why seek ye the living among the dead?" 

LOST GOLD. 

Untold millions' of dollars' worth of gold are sup- 
posed to have been lost in India. The gold is hidden 
in the earth by the people and finally lost. In an- 
cient times and up to the period of the conquest and 
occupation by the English, individual property was 



HEAVEN DRAWING NEARER. 291 



not protected. The country from one end to the 
other was the prey of rival factions who ravaged it 
ceaselessly and without mercy. To escape from the 
general robbery the natives, great and small, carefully 
concealed their money and other valuables under- 
ground. This inveterate habit became hereditary 
among them, so that to-day the natives do just what 
their ancestors did in past ages. It is estimated that 
not only millions but billions of gold coins thus lie 
idle in the hiding-places of India. This Indian land, 
the soil of which absorbs the floods of gold just as the 
sands of the deserts swallow the overflow of great 
rivers, is like some people who are forever receiving 
the good gifts of God, and instead of using them 
reverently and lovingly to bless themselves and the 
world, seek simply to hoard them up. God's gifts 
are all for service ; they are to be passed on to others, 
to be kept in circulation. 



HEAVEN DRAWING NEARER. 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox has a helpful little poem 
which illustrates how the growing number of our 
friends in heaven brings the other world closer and 
more familiar to us with every passing year : 

It seemeth such a little way to me 
Across to that strange country, the Beyond ; 

And yet not strange, for it has grown to be 
The home of those of whom I am so fond. 

They make it seem familiar and most dear, 

As journeying friends bring distant countries near. 



292 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



And so for me there is no sting to death, 

And so the grave has lost its victory : 
It is hut crossing — with deep-hated breath 

And white, set face — a little strip of sea, 
To find the loved ones waiting on the shore, 
More beautiful, more precious, than before. 

A SURE ANCHOR. 

About New York harbor there are wrecking-steam- 
ers which spend all their time fishing for anchors. 
The last notable success in anchor-fishing was the 
recovery of the six-ton anchor attached to the United 
States cruiser Brooklyn. The loss was caused by a 
flaw in one of the links of the cable, and occurred at 
the government anchorage off Staten Island while the 
cruiser was getting under way. Great uncertainty 
prevailed as to the probable location of the anchor, 
and the wrecking- steamer spent several days dredg- 
ing before it was found. The best anchor in the 
world is the anchor that Paul tells about in his let- 
ter to the Hebrews, where he says that God has con- 
firmed his promise to us by an oath, that " we might 
have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge 
to lay hold upon the hope set before us : which hope 
we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and 
steadfast, and which entereth into that within the 
veil." 

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE, 

The selfish man who is always looking out for 
" number one " is grievously mistaken when he thinks 
he is in that way getting the best out of life. It is 



LOST GEMS. 



293 



not what we gather but what we distribute that gives 
us the life abundant. EL W. Howard gives our mes- 
sage in a little poem : 

He lives the most whose eyes perceive 

The beauty hid in every zone, 
Whose faith can pierce all distances, 

And make the things unseen his own. 

He lives the most whose senses keen 

Have felt the pang of every wo, 
Who knows by sad experiences 

The tests which mortals undergo. 

He lives the most whose soul responds 

To all that's good, to every need, 
Whose willing hands and tireless feet 

Are swift to do each Christlike deed. 

He lives the most whose heart of love 

O'erflows its banks on every side, 
Who, like his Master, gives himself, 

And casts his bread upon the tide. 

LOST GEMS. 

The Manufacturing Jeweler, a magazine devoted to 
jewelry, declares that more than two million dollars' 
worth of jewels are lost every season at American 
summer resorts. That so much more jewelry is lost 
in the summer than during the winter is due to the 
foolish display which is made of such valuables on 
hotel piazzas, the sands, and even in the ocean it- 
self. The bathers at the fashionable resorts often 
indulge in a caprice of appearing in the water wearing 
several thousand dollars' worth of diamonds. The 
chances of losing these trinkets while exercising, or 



294 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



while lying about on the beach, are, of course, very- 
great. It is a notable fact that more people lose the 
priceless jewels of character in their hours of amuse- 
ment and recreation than while engaged in the serious 
work of life. There is no time when a man or a 
woman should be so careful of the consistency of con- 
duct as in hours of relaxation. 

THE BLESSING OF FRIENDS. 

Christ said a sweet thing to his disciples when he 
comforted them with the words, " Ye are my friends." 
Some poet sings about friends : 

Every soul that touches ours — 

Be it the slightest contact — 

Gets therefrom some good, 

Some little grace, one kindly thought, 

One inspiration yet unfelt, 

For the darkening sky, one gleam of faith, 

To brave the thickening ills of life, 

One glimpse of brighter skies, beyond the gathering mists, 
To make this life worth while 
And heaven a surer heritage. 

THE COURAGEOUS SOUL. 

A grim relic has just been added to the collection 
in Paris known as the Musee de l'Armee, which was 
recently installed in the Hotel des Invalides. It is 
the wooden leg worn by General Daumesnil. Daumes- 
nil, a Napoleonic veteran who had left one of his 
lower extremities on the battlefield of Wagram, hap- 
pened to be in command at Yincennes when the allies 



FRESH IMPULSE. 



295 



entered Paris. He refused to surrender, crying from 
the battlements: "I won't give up the place till you 
give me back my leg ! " Men who carry that spirit 
into the ordinary affairs of daily life compel hard for- 
tune to do them justice and are rarely compelled to 
surrender. 

FRESH IMPULSE. 

Men keep young and keep their lives fresh and 
courageous by ever and anon receiving fresh impulse. 
Helen Hunt Jackson sings a very suggestive song 
concerning the fresh impulse that comes with the en- 
tering upon a new year. Many of us have felt this 
without having the power to express it so well : 

Only a night from old to Dew ! 

Only a night, and so much wrought ! 
The Old Tear's heart all weary grew 

But said, " The New Year rest has brought. n 
The Old Year's heart its hopes laid down 

As in a grave, but trusting said, 
"The blossoms of the New Year's crown 

Bloom from the ashes of the dead." 
The Old Year's heart was full of greed ; 

With selfishness it longed and ached, 
And cried : " I have not half I need, 

My thirst is bitter and unslaked. 
But to the New Year's generous hand 

All gifts in plenty shall return ; 
True loving it shall understand ; 

By all my failures it shall learn. 
I have been reckless : it shall be 

Quiet and calm and pure of life. 
I was a slave : it shall go free, 

And find sweet peace where I leave strife." 



296 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Only a night from old to new ! 

Never a night such changes brought. 
The Old Year had its work to do ; 

No New Year miracles are wrought. 

Always a night from old to new ! 

Night and the healing balm of sleep ! 
Each morn is New Year's morn come true, 

Morn of a festival to keep. 
All nights are sacred nights to make 

Confession and resolve and prayer ; 
All days are sacred days to wake 

New gladness in the sunny air. 
Only a night from old to new ; 

Only a sleep from night to morn. 
The new is but the old come true ; 

Each sunrise sees a new year born. 

THE MUSIC OF LABOR, 

Numerous trades-unions throughout the East whose 
members are musically inclined have arranged to hold 
a great musical festival in New York City. Sixty- 
three singing societies, belonging to trades-unions in 
different cities and towns, are to take part in it. 
The singing-club from one town is made up of weav- 
ers, another of miners, another of cabinet-makers, 
and so on. The festival will be a sort of labor 
celebration, and the songs sung will illustrate the 
hopes, aspirations, joys, and sufferings of the nation's 
toilers as represented in trades-unions. The singing 
societies from a mining district will sing " The Min- 
ers' Lot," while the weavers will sing "The Weav- 
ers " by Heinrich Heine. How happy it would be for 
the whole world of mankind if such justice and kind- 



GOD OUR FATHER. 



297 



liness ruled everywhere in the labor world that men 
and women would burst forth into songs as they went 
about their toil, voicing the gladness and thanksgiv- 
ing of their hearts ! No man can do his best work in 
this world until he can go about it in the singing 
spirit. Lowell wrote with true poetic insight when 
he gave as a part of the inheritance most to be grate- 
ful for in the lot of a poor man's son that he has "a 
heart that in his labor sings." 

GOD OUR FATHER, 

No poet can creep farther into the heart through 
his sympathetic appreciation of childhood's appeal 
than Eugene Field. How tender is the pathos of this 
little poem, "At the Door": 

I thought myself indeed secure, 

So fast the door, so firm the lock ; 
But, lo ! he toddling comes to lure 

My parent ear with timorous knock. 

My heart were stone could it withstand 

The sweetness of my baby's plea, — 
That timorous, baby knocking, and 

"Please let me in : it's only me." 

I threw aside the unfinished book, 

Regardless of its tempting charms ; 
And, opening wide the door, I took 

My laughing darling in my arms. 

Who knows but in eternity 

I, like a truant child, shall wait 
The glories of a life to be, 

Beyond the heavenly Father's gate? 



298 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



And will that heavenly Father heed 

The truant's supplicating cry, 
As at the outer door I plead, 

"'TisI, O Father! only I"? 

THE DAY OF RECOGNITION. 

Mrs. Julia Ward Howe received a deserved recogni- 
tion at a recent Memorial-Day service in the city of 
Boston. There was celebration in the Boston The- 
ater, where Mrs. Howe's immortal "Battle-Hymn of 
the Bepublic " was sung by Myron W. "Whitney. 
There was a great audience, and when Mr. Whitney 
rose to sing he bowed to a box where the white-haired 
poet was sitting. The audience was wild in its en- 
thusiasm. The climax was reached when the last 
verse came, and they could see the splendid white 
head trembling as her aged voice joined in as Whit- 
ney sang, " In the glory of the lilies Christ was born 
across the sea " ; and by the time he had reached the 
words, " As he died to make men holy, let us die to 
make men free," the whole vast audience was on its 
feet, sobbing and singing at the top of its thousands 
of lungs. That was a great recognition, and must 
have warmed the heart of the sweet-spirited woman 
who wrote the splendid hymn. But there is coming 
a more glorious day of recognition than that, when an 
assembled world shall be gathered together, and the 
King on the great white throne shall call forth some 
true and noble man or woman who went a whole life- 
time doing faithful service, thinking himself or her- 
self unnoticed and that the toil was unappreciated, 



THE IMPREGNABLE CHARACTER. 299 



but the King shall say, " Here is one who was faithful 
to me in yonder world of trial when my name was cast 
out as evil." How such recognition will rejoice the 
ransomed spirit ! That such a day is coming we have 
the assurance in those significant words of Jesus: 
" Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, 
him will I confess also before my Father which is in 
heaven. " 

A USEFUL LIFE, 

A noble prayer for usefulness is this little poem of 
Philip Phillips, Jr., entitled "A Prayer": 

Thy will to do, Thy work to make 

More forceful on this fallen earth, 
Thy love in some lone heart to leave, 
Thy word to give where spirits grieve, 
To teach a downcast soul its worth ; 

Into some fettered life to take 

Thy freeing power ; for some one's sake 

To give of self as Thou didst give, — 

For such a mission let me live ! 

THE IMPREGNABLE CHARACTER, 

A band of Apache Indians once captured the army 
paymaster's safe in the Western mountains. The safe 
contained about seven thousand dollars in greenbacks. 
It weighed four hundred pounds and worked with a 
combination. None of the Indians had ever exam- 
ined one at close quarters before, but they all knew 
why it was hauled about from post to post, and were 
very anxious to get hold of the money. They first 
pounded off the knob with stones, thinking the door 



300 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



could then be pried open. It was a failure, of course, 
and then they tried their tomahawks on the chilled 
steel, hoping to cut a hole in it. They had seen iron 
softened by fire, and the third move was to give that 
safe a three-hours' roasting ; but it proved to be fire- 
proof. They threw big rocks upon it while it was 
still hot, and it was dented here and there, but they 
were as far from the money as ever. Then they 
dragged it up the side of a mountain and tumbled it 
over a precipice two hundred feet high. They ex- 
pected to see it burst open, but the only damage done 
was to break off one of the wheels. They left it 
lying where it fell for a while, and then came back 
and carried it to the river and let it soak for a whole 
week. It was thought that this would soften it up, 
and great was their chagrin to find it as hard as ever. 
Then they tried gunpowder, but knowing nothing of 
blasting they brought about an explosion which badly 
burned half a dozen Indians, but did no damage to 
the safe. The Indians worked for a month at that 
safe harder than they had ever worked at anything 
else in all their lives, but they failed to get inside of 
it, and finally tumbled it into a deep ravine and left 
it. Fourteen months later, after peace was made, the 
Government got on the track of the safe, and an am- 
bulance and a guard were sent for it. It was found 
lying in the bed of a creek with a pile of driftwood 
around it. It was a rusty, dented, lonesome-looking 
old safe, but when it was brought into the fort and 
the door was opened it yielded up its contents with- 
out the loss of a dollar. True character is like that. 



WASTED NERVES. 



301 



You may put if through, the fires of temptation, you 
may stone it as they did Stephen, but if it is real 
Christian character it will keep its treasure secure 
and bring it forth at last to be honored of God and 
man. 

. PERFECT TRUST. 

How sweet is the experience of that perfect trust in 
God expressed in these lines by Whittier : 

So sometimes comes to soul and sense 
The feeling which is evidence 
That very near about us lies 
The realm of spiritual mysteries ; 
The sphere of the supernal powers 
Impinges on this world of ours. 
The low and dark horizon lifts 
To light ; the scenic terror shifts ; 
The breath of a diviner air 
Blows down the answer to a prayer. 

That all our sorrow, pain, and doubt, 
A great compassion clasps about ; 
And law and goodness, love and force, 
Are wedded fast, beyond divorce. 
Then duty leaves to love its task, 
The beggar self forgets to ask ; 
With smile of trust and folded hands 
The passive soul in waiting stands, 
To feel, as flowers the sun and dew, 
The one True Life its own renew. 

"WASTED NERVES. 

"I take a drink when I feel like it," said a New 
Orleans business man the other day, "and can't see 
that it has ever done me any harm ; but I witnessed a 
little episode this morning that has haunted me ever 



302 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



since and has forced me to do a good deal of thinking. 
I had stepped into a bar very early to get a cocktail, 
and while it was being compounded a middle-aged 
gentleman came in and asked one of the attendants 
to pour him out a little plain whisky. He was care- 
fully dressed, and had all the marks of refinement 
and good breeding. The bartender placed half a 
small glassful of whisky at his elbow, but the instant 
he stretched out his hand I saw that the man was on 
the verge of nervous collapse. He shook like an 
aspen, and when he finally managed to seize the 
tumbler its contents flew in every direction. 'Let me 
assist you, colonel/ said the bartender, quietly, and 
pouring out another drink he leaned over and held it 
to his lips. The man said nothing, but gave him a 
haggard look that went to my heart like a knife. My 
God, what a look! Shame, humiliation, and abject 
animal terror. It started the sweat on me like water. 
Well, he drank his whisky, stood still for a minute as 
if gathering himself together, and sauntered out as 
cool as ever. I asked the bartender if he had many 
such customers, and he laughed. ' Lots of them/ 
he said. ' There isn't a first-class bar in town/ he 
went on, 'that don't patch up a few old boys like 
that almost every morning. They are not drunkards, 
but they have been at it so many years that their 
nerves are gone; and altho they don't know it, they 
are working on absolutely nothing but whisky. As 
soon as they get a little fresh fuel in the morning 
they are all right; but they come in scared out of 
their wits and thinking they are going to drop dead 



S 



SWEETEST SONG ON EARTH IS MOTHER 'S. 303 



every minute.' I walked out with this thought: If 
young men would only reflect, who are just beginning 
to play with the adder, they would die before they 
would go on until they are in its deadly power to 
such an extent as that." 

THE SWEETEST SONG ON EARTH IS MOTHER'S. 

Sweeter than bird or poet is the song of mother- 
hood. Charles Emerson Cook beautifully expresses 
it in a little poem entitled " Melodies " : 

A robin sang. 
The dull world wakened from its sleep, 

Cast off its robe of winter sadness ; 
The leaves from bondage 'gan to peep, 

The brooks o'erflowed in jolly madness. 
All nature listened to the warning, 
And laughed with glee in springtime's morning, 
When robin sang. 

A poet sang. 
It was a song that reached the heart 
Of many a man, of every woman. 
It was the fruit of perfect art, 

It showed a power divinely human. 
His name was known to all ; and then 
Fame on her tablets wrote it, when 
The poet sang. 

A mother sang. 
Two little eyelids blinked and drooped, 

And bright curls nestled on her breast, 
Contentment's bounty richly trooped ; 

Sweet innocence found loving rest. 
The slumber fairies tiptoed near, 
And all the angels stopped to hear 
When mother sang. 



304 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



SHOULDERS OF STEEL. 

In an interesting collection of warlike curiosities to 
be seen in Paris is a steel shoulder, the hero who once 
wore it having long since laid down earth's burdens. 
When Baron d'Aboville was in the battle of Wagram 
a cannon-ball carried away the whole of his shoulder 
to the collar-bone. "Patch me up this," he re- 
marked to the surgeon when he reached the field- 
hospital. The doctor considered the case hopeless, 
but bound the wound up as best he could. Some 
years later an officer came into this physician's con- 
sulting-room in Paris one day, complaining that he 
could not get a coat to fit him. The doctor at once 
recognized his former patient, and made for him the 
steel shoulder, which the brave general wore for the 
rest of his days. Who of us does not know of men 
and women in humble life whose shoulders have been 
fitted for the burden until they are stronger than steel 
and far more reliable? 

THE SUNDAY OASIS. 

What the Lord's day really held sacred means to 
busy, overworked, burden-bearing men and women 
has seldom if ever been better expressed than in a 
little poem written by the late Gov. Frederick T. 
Greenhalge, of Massachusetts : 

How still and calm the day ! how still and calm 
My heart that lately throbbed with wrath and pain ! 

The week's wild tumult now is as a psalm 
Borne faintly to us from some distant fane. 



THE DIVINE ELECTROID. 305 

And from the glory of this silent hour 

Confusion flies, like Satan and the Night ; 

Strong Truths stand forth, clothed with seraphic power, 
While cowering Baseness seeks to shun the light. 

See noble Purpose, clouded until now, 

Shine with the flame of Bethlehem's great star; 

And prophets, smiling, point us to the brow 

Whose whiteness wreaths and glories can not mar. 

From the still height of this serenest day, 

I trace life's motions with a clearer eye : 
Men's deeds and lives are only God's highway, 

Which leads into his glory by and by. 

THE DIVINE ELECTROID. 

Francis Bychnowski, a mechanical engineer of Lem- 
berg, Austria, has discovered a strange and very sub- 
tile matter, which he has called " electroid " because 
of a certain affinity with electricity. Electroid, pro- 
duced by a special apparatus built by the inventor, is 
obtained by the dissolution of certain matters under 
the influence of the electric current. It makes a 
noise, and at the same time a refreshing scent and a 
cool breeze are experienced. This discovery induced 
the inventor to make a machine capable of refreshing 
the air to such a degree that those present during the 
experiment had the feeling that the window was open, 
altho this was not the case. The commission ap- 
pointed by the Austrian Government to investigate 
this discovery reported that under the influence of 
electroid plants grow rapidly, and the buds of flowers 
unclose while one is looking at them. Electroid an- 
nihilates microbes and thus preserves health in or- 
20 



306 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



gaiiic matter. Hope is • a sort of divine electroid. 
Hearts are inspired by it, and grow and unfold in 
beauty under its influence. It takes away the spiri- 
tual microbes of doubt and fear, and preserves the 
health of the soul. 

CONSCIOUS IMMORTALITY, 

The testimony to immortality which is in our own 
consciousness has not often been so strongly given as 
in these lines by Dr. William H. Furness. They are 
written from out the fulness of a good man's heart: 

What is this that stirs within, 
Loving goodness, hating sin, 
Always craving to be blest, 
Finding here below no rest? 

What is it? whither, whence, 
This unsleeping, secret sense, 
Seeking for its rest and food 
In some hidden, untried good? 

'Tis the soul, — mysterious name, 
Him it seeks from whom it came ; 
While I muse, I feel the fire 
Burning on, and mounting higher. 

Onward, upward to thy throne, 
O thou Infinite, unknown ! 
Still it presseth, till it see 
Thee in all, and all in thee ! 

SAILING UNDER FALSE COLORS. 

There is said to be a king of a tribe on the west 
coast of Africa who has a mania for collecting British 
war medals, and a London firm has a standing order 



LOVE AND TRUST. 



307 



to supply his sable majesty. This king owns a ma- 
jor-general's tunic on which, are sewn, both back and 
front and from collar to tails, medals and clasps from 
Waterloo down to the present. This garment the 
monarch proudly sports on special state occasions. 
What a false idea of greatness that king has ! He 
does not realize that the medals are worthless except 
as they are the outward symbol of an inner courage 
and nobility of spirit. Yet he is not alone ; there are 
many people in civilized lands who are willing to flaunt 
the symbols of greatness and goodness who never 
dream of sharing the self-sacrifice and carrying the 
burdens which develop noble souls. 

LOVE AND TRUST. 

Useless regrets and self-criminations may be calmed 
by yielding to the inevitable in a spirit of love and 
trust. No one has sung this faith more sweetly than 
our poet, Samuel Longfellow, who in his own experi- 
ence knew the depth of suffering and the blessedness 
of looking to the Eternal Love : 

I look to thee in every need, 

And never look in vain ; 
I feel thy touch, Eternal Love, 

And all is well again ! 
The thought of thee is mightier far 
Than sin and pain and sorrow are. 

Discouraged in the work of life, 

Disheartened by its load, 
Shamed by its failures or its fears, 

I sink beside the road ; 



308 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



But let ine only think of thee, 

And then new heart springs up in me. 

Thy calmness bends serene above, 

My restlessness to still; 
Around me flows thy quickening life, 

To nerve my faltering will : 
Thy presence fills my solitude, 
Thy providence turns all to good. 

Embosomed deep in thy dear love, 

Held in thy law, I stand ; 
Thy hand in all things I behold, 

And all things in thy hand. 
Thou leadest me by unsought ways, 
And turn'st my mourning into praise. 

THE INFALLIBLE DETECTIVE. 

A rich American residing in St. George's quarter in 
Paris had been for some time the victim of systematic 
thefts. Bank-notes and money not left under lock 
and key disappeared regularly. The commissary of 
police was informed of the robberies. He found it 
would be impossible to get an effective watch on the 
bedroom where the thefts occurred, but he adopted a 
stratagem which turned out successfully. A small 
vial containing a mixture of acid was placed in a 
metal case for holding gold, and a few napoleons 
were placed on top. In order to get out the gold the 
metal case had to be held upside down, and then the 
chemical preparation would run out and stain the 
thief's hands a bright and indelible yellow. As soon 
as some of the gold was missed the commissioner 
summoned all the servants to his presence. The val- 



LIKE A PALM-TREE. 



309 



et's fingers betrayed him. Realizing the uselessness 
of denying when caught yellow-handed, he con- 
fessed and was duly locked up. The influence of 
sin on character is like that. It is not necessary in 
order that a man come to his ruin that some one shall 
watch him in his iniquity. There is a deadly acid 
about sin that leaves its stain on the soul. A man's 
own personality will witness against him or for him 
in the day of judgment. 

THE GROWTH OF EASTER. 

Every Easter-time increases the circle of the hope- 
ful multitude of earth who rejoice in confidence of 
the immortal life. It is surely a characteristic voice 
of our age when Tennyson sings : 

For tho from out our bourne of Time and Place 

The floods may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 

When I have crossed the bar. 

LIKE A PALM-TREE. 

The palm has been called the blessed tree, for every 
part of it has its usefulness for mankind. Certain 
medicinal qualities are claimed for its roots, and its 
trunk is easily split into strips, making excellent 
boards for the siding of houses, benches, and even 
tables. As the trunk is without bark, and its center 
is very porous, increasing in density toward the outer 
surface, which is nearly as hard as glass, it is only 
the outside hard shell of the trunk which furnishes 



310 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



these boards. From this hard, fibrous wood some 
very pretty canes are made, which take a most beau- 
tiful polish. The leaves of the palm grow from the 
center of the trunk, first in the form of a delicate 
spire shooting up, which, gradually unfolding itself, 
forms a new leaf. These leaves continue to, grow 
from the center spire to a great length, forming a 
cluster which, in the case of the royal palm, resem- 
bles a bunch of enormous plumes. The leaves, when 
they can not grow any more, drop to the ground from 
the bottom of the cluster, thus making room for the 
new ones which are always coming out of the center. 
The bud or root of the center spire, from which the 
leaves grow, consists of a tender substance buried 
deep down within the cluster of green leaves, and 
forms a very palatable food. How much it means 
when God compares us to a palm-tree, and promises 
that in old age we shall be like the palm, ever green 
and fruitful and blessed to the world ! 

SHINE AFTER CLOUD. 

We may ever comfort ourselves with the knowledge 
that the afterward of many of the trials of life is full 
of peace, Annie Horton Young beautifully expresses 
it: 

Just a pink where the clouds have been, 
Just a gray mist, pale and thin, 

Over the mountains ; 
And far in the west 
A robin flying home to her nest 

In the sunset glow. 



WIND-BLOWN LIVES. 



311 



Just a peace where the storm has been, 
Just a quiet and rest within 

Over the soul ; 
And out of the gray 
A vision glad of a better day 

When the morn shall come. 

WIND-BLOWN LIVES. 

Wild geese by the wagon-load were slaughtered in 
the suburbs of Topeka, Kans., not long ago. It ap- 
pears that some extraordinary atmospheric condition 
had brought vast flocks of the fowls down from their 
lofty courses through the air, and caused them to 
sail in dismal perplexity within ten or fifteen feet of 
the ground. As night began to come down the geese 
were attracted by the blazing electric lights, and 
around and around these lights hundreds of the geese 
fluttered in blind confusion. It did not take long for 
the people living in the vicinity to discover the oppor- 
tunity- for laying up a supply of the poultry. All 
who had guns or revolvers began to shoot into the 
thick flocks, and geese by the score came tumbling to 
the ground. Those who had no guns took long poles 
and knocked down the distracted birds almost as fast 
as the gunners did. Men and women are caught up 
in the winds of life like that sometimes, and fall an 
easy prey to the devil's pot-hunters. Nothing is 
more pathetic than the confused souls who fly hither 
and thither without a guide. No one need become 
thus endangered, for Christ offers to be our sure 
Guide, and those who follow him shall not come into 
peril. 



312 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



THE RISING TIDE. 

The tide of goodness in the world is rising steadily 
but surely, tho to a narrow observer it sometimes 
seems to make no progress. Gerald Massey illus- 
trates the gratifying fact with singular clearness : 

"Tis weary watching wave by wave, 

And yet the tide heaves onward. 
We climb, like corals, grave by grave, 

Yet pave a path that's sunward. 

We are beaten back in many a fray, 

But newer strength we borrow ; 
And where the vanguard camps to-day 

The rear shall rest to-morrow. 

FRUIT IN OLD AGE. 

Perhaps no artist ever had so prosperous a career 
as Titian. Success attended him from the first, and 
during ninety -nine years no cloud dimmed the bright- 
ness of his horizon. To the end of that marvelous 
age he retained all his faculties, producing master- 
pieces to the last, and dying finally of the plague, a 
hale, hearty old man. The princes and potentates of 
the earth chose him to leave their image to posterity, 
and it was the monarch of Austria and Germany, of 
Spain and the Indies, upon whose vast dominions the 
sun never set, who picked up the brush that he had 
dropped, saying that a Titian was worthy to be served 
by an emperor. To keep life always young and fruit- 
ful in old age, one must have the true artistic temper- 
ament. He must be able to see visions and dream 



WHITE SLAVES. 



313 



dreams. Christ gives that power to his disciples — 
power to surmount the earthly troubles and limita- 
tions, and rise up with wings as eagles into an atmos- 
phere where one may run and not be weary, and walk 
without fainting. 

WHITE SLAVES. 

The saddest thing in our modern life is the pitiful 
slavery that yet exists in some quarters where labor 
is not regarded as the work of a man, as a human 
act, but as the slavery of a hired thing. W. D. 
Howells writes with biting earnestness of such a 
case: 

A spiteful snow spit through the bitter day 

In little stinging pellets gray, 

And crackling on the frozen street 

About the iron feet, 

Broad stamped in massy shoes 

Sharpened and corked for winter use, 

Of the huge Norman horses plump and round, 

In burnished brass and shining leather bound, 

Dragging each heavy fetlock like a mane, 

And shaking as they pull the ponderous wain 

With wheels that jar the ground 

In a small earthquake, where they jolt and grind, 

And leave a span- wide track behind ; 

And hunched above the load 

Above the Company's horses like a toad, 

All hugged together 

Against the pitiless weather, 

In an old cardigan jacket and a cap 

Of mangy fur, 

And a frayed comforter 

Around his stiffened chin, too scant to wrap 



314 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



His purple ears, 

And in his blinking eyes what had been tears, 

But that they seemed to have frozen there ere they ran, 

The Company's man. 

THINGS TOO DEEP FOR ANALYSIS. 

It is said of James Smithson that, happening to 
observe a tear gliding down a lady's cheek, he en- 
deavored to catch it in a crystal vessel ; that one-half 
of the drop escaped, but, having preserved the other 
half, he analyzed it and detected what was then called 
microcosmic salt, with muriate of soda and three or 
four more saline substances held in solution. Some 
preachers make the great mistake of analyzing the 
Gospel until there is no food left in it for the starv- 
ing flock of God. Instead of analyzing tears it is 
better to try to wipe them away ; instead of analyzing 
the Gospel into such and such spiritual salts and 
acids, it is better to bring its comfort to bear to solace 
sorrowing hearts and its salvation to redeem sinful 
men and women. 

THE HEAVENLY ATTRACTION. 

Christ said that if he were lifted up before the gaze 
of the world he would draw all men unto him. Some 
unknown author has given us a beautiful allegory, 
under the title "The Sea and the Cloud," illustrating 
this heavenly attraction : 

The great Sea lay and looked on high, 
When, floating aloft in the lovely sky, 
It saw a fleecy Cloud so light, 
So pure, so spotless, and so bright ; 



THE HEAVENLY ATTRACTION. 



It wondered whence so fleet a form 

Arose, the heavens to adorn. 

"They say," it sighed, "that came from earth ; 

And more, that I have given it birth. 

But how absurd to think that I 

Could ever mount that lofty sky ! 

Ah ! I could never be like thee ; 

In the bosom of God thou seem'st to be, 

Besides," — and the Sea was silent now, 

As it thought of its wild and fevered brow ; 

Arid how oft in its rage it had dealt a blow 

That laid thousands dead in its depths below. 

And yet I perceived it could not rest 

As it looked at that beauteous thing so blest. 

Then it roused up and said, "I will try," 

And borrowed the wind to drive it high ; 

And, gathering its strength, it curled in its pride 

And dashed itself on the rock beside ; 

Then, rearing a column of quivering spray, 

It seemed to be borne to the heights away ; 

But it fell, alas ! on the angry breast, 

Back with its foaming, whitened crest. 

Baffled and beaten, it buried its head, 

And hid in the depths of its ocean bed. 

And it hissed as it did so, "It cannot be ; 

I said I knew it was not for me. " 

At length the great Sea lay quiet and still, 

For fell despair had subdued its will ; 

When the glorious Sun looked forth on the scene 

And gleamed on its bosom in silver sheen, 

And the great Sea looked in the face of the Sun, 

And asked if it knew what could be done ; 

"The Moon draws me hither and thither," it said. 

"But it can not uplift me from my bed ; 

Nor can it transform this turbid breast 

Into that thing so pure and blest. 



316 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Canst thou transform me? " said the Sea. 
"Oh, yes," said the Sun, "if you'll suffer me." 
And the Sun sent down a noiseless ray, 
That loosened and warmed the Sea as it lay, 
And lifted it up, how, it never knew, 
A fleecy Cloud in the heavens blue. 

Do you know the parable, listener fair? 

Can you take the lesson that's couching there? 

Are you that Sea with its fond desire, 

Sighing and struggling to reach up higher? 

Does perfect grace attract thine eye, 

And to attain it dost thou try? 

But do baffled efforts mock thy skill, 

While sorrow and aDguish thy spirit fill 

And thou say 'st, " In God's bosom that grace must rest ; 

It never can visit my troubled breast? " 

Now, change thy plan and behold the Son, 

Just rest and trust, and the work is done. 

Transformed by beholding him thou'lt be, 

His great salvation thou shalt see. 

The process 'tis well that thou canst not know; 

Enough for thee it is "even so," 

That he lifts thee up and makes thee fit 

In the heavenly places with him to sit. 

THE NEMESIS OF SIN. 

Fifteen years ago a young workman in a frenzy 
of rage killed a comrade. Both, he and his victim 
were very young — little more than boys. They at- 
tended the same dance, and had a falling out, possi- 
bly about some partner in the festivities, and this 
young fellow followed the other from the hall and 
killed him. He was released and tried to live down 
his crime. He married a good woman, had several 



HELPING THE WEAK. 



317 



children, and kept at work. Bnt memory would not 
down. He was not naturally a criminal, but, yielding 
to his fierce temper, he had committed a crime. He 
became convinced that he was bad, and so let all that 
was base in him have full rein. Having lost hope, 
he took his own life with a bottle of poison. There 
is only one way to disarm the Nemesis of sin, and 
that is by obtaining forgiveness at the mercy-seat of 
Christ. He alone can pluck out the sting of guilt 
and give to the pardoned sinner the consciousness of 
being a new creature. 

THE ROAD HOME. 

Rev. Hiram D. Bacon writes a striking little prayer 
which will find an echo in the heart of every true 
Christian pilgrim: 

Teach me the way 
Lord ! 

The way of truth and right ! 
Let me not stray 
Lord ! 

In the darkness of the night ; 
Duty's path do thou make plain, 
The path which thou hast trod, 
The path which if I walk therein 
Will lead me home to God. 

HELPING THE WEAK* 

An English traveler who was considerably inter- 
ested in birds happened to be passing the autumn in 
the Isle of Crete, in the Mediterranean, and he often 
noticed a sound like the twittering of small birds at 



318 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



times when the sand-cranes were passing overhead on 
their way southward. As the only fowl in sight were 
the cranes, this aroused his curiosity, and he men- 
tioned the matter to a friend who was a native of the 
island, suggesting that possibly the noise was caused 
by the whirring of the feathers of these great birds. 
His friend, however, said no ; the noise, he declared, 
was made by song-birds that were riding on the backs 
of the cranes, and he further asserted that the saucy 
little fellows had come all the way from the coast of 
Europe with their good-natured companions, who 
lent, if not a helping hand, a helping back, which 
was much more serviceable. A few days later the 
Englishman got pretty conclusive proof of the truth 
of this statement. He was cruising about in a boat 
about fifteen miles from shore when another flock of 
cranes passed overhead, and he heard the same twit- 
tering notes. He therefore discharged his gun to see 
what would come of it, and forthwith he saw three 
small birds rise up from the flock in fright. After a 
short time they disappeared again among the cranes. 
The Indians of the region south of Hudson Bay tell 
a similar tale of a song-finch which travels across 
that great body of water and ice very comfortably on 
the back of a Canada goose. It seems that God has 
thus put into geese and cranes the instinct to give a 
helping back to bear the burdens of weaker fowl. 
Those who name the name of Jesus Christ ought cer- 
tainly to have hearts as tender as these birds. We 
show forth the spirit of Christ when we bend our 
back to carry the burdens of God's weaker singers. 



THE BIBLE FOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH. 319 



No music will be so sweet as the thanksgiving of such 
hearts which we have gladdened by our help. 

THE MOTHERHOOD OF GOD. 

Mrs. Browning's beautiful little poem entitled, " A 
Child's Thought of God," brings to our mind the 
promise that God will treat us "as one whom his 
mother comf orteth " : 

They say that God lives very high ! 

But if you look above the pines 
You can not see our God, and why? 

And if you dig down in the mines 

You never see him in the gold, 
Tho, from him, all that glory shines. 

God is so good, he wears a fold 

Of heaven and earth across his face, — 
Like secrets kept, for love, untold. 

But still I feel that his embrace 

Slides down by thrills, through all things made, 
Through sight and sound of every place : 

As if my tender mother laid 

On my shut lids her kisses' pressure, 

Half -waking me at night ; and said : 
"Who kissed you in the dark, dear guesser?" 

THE BIBLE FOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH. 

Mr. Frederic Harrison recently had a striking arti- 
cle in The Nineteenth Century — "Style in English 
Prose " — which one might well wish to put into the 
hands of all the young people who throng the colleges 
of the country. After an extended discussion of 



320 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



what a good style is, and of the authors to be read 
in order to attain it, he concludes by saying : " I need 
hardly tell you to read another and a greater Book. 
The Book which begot English prose still remains its 
supreme type. The English Bible is the true school 
of English literature. It possesses every quality of 
our language in its highest form except for scientific 
precision, practical affairs, and philosophic analysis. 
It would be ridiculous to write an essay on meta- 
physics, a political article, or a novel in the language 
of the Bible. Indeed, it would be ridiculous to write 
anything at all in the language of the Bible. But if 
you care to know the best that our literature can give 
in simple noble prose, mark, learn, and inwardly digest 
the Holy Scriptures in the English tongue." 

UNSELFISHNESS, 

Lucy Larcom makes it very clear that unselfishness 
is the only atmosphere in which the spiritual graces 
can grow : 

" If selfishly thy heaven I seek, 

I seek thy heaven in vain," — 
I heard my heart within me speak : 

I hear it yet again. 

For heaven is all unselfishness : 

The souls whose home is there 
Have never dreamed of happiness 

They do not long to share. 

If selfishly thy love I seek, 

I seek thy love in vain. 
Place at thy side need none bespeak 

Who shrink back from thy pain. 



LOVE'S WILLING SERVICE. 321 



For love — thy love — is sacrifice : 

Who seeketh still his own, 
Nor for his brethren lives and dies, 

Thyself hath never known. 

Dear Lord, each selfish thought we think 

Puts us afar from thee : 
Into our own dark depths we sink, 

Where heaven can never be. 

Teach us to know thee as thou art ; 

To give as thou hast given ! 
O show us how the loving heart 

May make this world a heaven ! 

LOVE'S WILLING SERVICE. 

Clifford Howard tells a most fascinating story of 
the supreme love which existed between Eobert and 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning. He relates that when 
Mr. Browning returned with her on a visit to Eng- 
land, after an absence of several years, he repaired 
to the little church in which they had been married, 
and there at the entrance he reverently knelt and 
kissed the paving-stones upon which she, the light of 
his being, had stepped. And in after years, when the 
light had gone from his life, he sought this sacred 
spot on the 12th of each September, and in the dusk 
of the evening shadows passers-by might have seen a 
white-haired man kneeling for a moment as if in 
prayer before the doorway of the dark and silent 
church. Yet little would they have thought to recog- 
nize in this man the poet Browning, he whose mys- 
tical writings had led the world to regard him as a 
man of austere nature. During her long illness he 
21 



322 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



nursed her with almost pathetic care. Oftentimes 
would he rise early in the morning, long ere the time 
for her awakening, and, hastening forth into the garden 
or the fields, gather a bunch of fragrant blossoms to 
place at her bedside, that they might be the first real- 
ities of life to greet her with their sunshine and with 
their tender message of love upon her return from the 
world of dreams. To shield her delicate eyes from 
the light he had placed at the window of her room a 
small shutter of mica, so arranged that the sunlight 
might fall upon her table in subdued and gentle radi- 
ance. Love makes service light. Love never asks 
how little it can do, but how much it can do for the 
beloved's sake. If we rise to full appreciation of the 
love of Christ for us, our love for him will give us 
wings that shall be tireless to carry us on errands of 
mercy in his name, 



THE FREEDOM OF DEATH. 

Death sets free from all the little worries of life. 
When Tennyson came to his dying day he called for 
his favorite copy of Shakespeare, turned to Cym- 
beline, read a little, and fell asleep with the book 
still in his hand, and thus calmly passed away. 

Fear no more the heat o' th' sun, 

Nor the furious winter's rages; 
Thou thy worldly task hast done, 

Home art gone and ta'en thy wages: 
Golden lads and girls all must, 
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. 



THE PLODDER'S PETITION. 



323 



Fear no more frown o' the great, 

Thou art past the tyrant's stroke ; 
Care no more to clothe and eat ; 

To thee the reed is as the oak : 
The scepter, learning, physic, must 
All follow this and come to dust. 

Fear no more the lightning-flash, 

Nor the all-dreaded thunder-storm ; 
Fear no slander, censure rash ; 

Thou hast finished joy and moan : 
All lovers young, all lovers must 
Consign to thee, and come to dust. 

No exorciser harm thee ! 
Nor no witchcraft charm thee ! 
Ghost unlaid forbear thee ! 
Nothing ill come near thee ! 
Quiet consummation have ; 
And renowned be thy grave ! 

THE PLODDER'S PETITION. 

One of the hardest things we have to contend with 
in this world is to keep the romantic and heroic spirit 
in the midst of the prosaic and commonplace experi- 
ences in which most of us have to spend a good part 
of our lives. If we do not keep constantly in our 
thought the development of the spiritual, the worldly 
and the sensual come in like a flood and smother out 
the better life entirely. Helen Gilbert voices the 
j theme with great clearness in her little poem entitled 
'"The Plodder's Petition » : 

Lord, let me not be too content 
With life in trifling service spent — 
Make me aspire ! 



324 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



When days with petty cares are filled, 
Let me with fleeting thoughts be thrilled 
Of something higher ! 



LONGING THE STEPPING-STONE TO 
ACHIEVEMENT, 

Our condition is at the worst when we are conscious 
of no longing for something nobler and better. J ames 
Kussell Lowell inspires us to thank God for the long- 
ing for nobler things that spurs us onward and up- 
ward. 

Of all the myriad moods of mind 

That through the soul come thronging, 
Which one was e'er so dear, so kind, 

So beautiful as Longing? 
That thing we long for, that we are 

For one transcendent moment, 
Before the Present poor and bare 

Can make its sneering comment. 

Still through our paltry stir and strife 

Glows down the wished Ideal, 
And Longing molds in clay what Life 

Carves in the marble Real ; 
To let the new life in, we know, 

Desire must ope the portal ; 
Perhaps the longing to be so 

Helps make the soul immortal. 

Longing is God's fresh heavenward will 

With our poor earthward striving ; 
We quench it that we may be still 

Content with merely living ; 
But, would we learn the heart's full scope* 

Which we are hourly wronging, 
Our lives must climb from hope to hope 

And realize our longing. 



SUCCESS BY OPPRESSION. 



325 



Ah, let us hope that to our praise 

Good God not only reckons 
The moments when we tread his ways, 

But when the spirit beckons — 
That some slight good is also wrought, 

Beyond self-satisfaction, 
When we are simply good in thought, 

Howe'er we fail in action. 

SUCCESS BY OPPRESSION. 

Down among the oaks that line the shores of Merry- 
Meeting Bay, on the coast of Maine, a colony of eagles 
have lived for generations. During the summer months 
they subsist largely on fish. Their mode of procuring 
them is very ingenious. Almost any day they may be 
seen perched upon a convenient stump or bough near 
the water's edge, like gray, grim sentinels, silently 
waiting for something to turn up. That something 
is a fish-hawk; and when he makes his appearance 
and slowly circles around in search of his prey the 
eagles' eyes follow him, and when at last he succeeds 
in bringing up a fish an eagle starts in pursuit. 
Being swift of wing, he soon overtakes the hawk, 
which makes every effort to get away but without 
avail. The eagle scales under the hawk, that by this 
time has become so thoroughly frightened as to drop 
the fish. This is easily caught in the talons of the 
eagle, and flying swiftly to the shore he devours the 
stolen meal. There are many business men in these 
days who count on getting their luxurious living by 
seizing the hard-earned profits of another's toil — giant 
trusts that swoop down on small manufacturers and 



326 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



individual traders with talons as cruel and relentless 
as those with which the eagle threatens the industri- 
ous fish -hawk. The reign of Christ must do away 
with this cruel, if respectable, pillage. In Christ's 
kingdom no man will make his profit through sorrow 
and loss to another. The Golden Rule will make 
that impossible. 

THE MASTER'S FACE. 

That the best picture of J esus one can have — a pic- 
ture more splendid than the art of Raphael could 
paint — is the portrait impressed by the Holy Spirit on 
a loving heart, is made clear in a little poem by Jan 
von Bohlyns, entitled "The Master's Face": 

No pictured likeness of my Lord have I ; 
He carved no record of his ministry 

On wood or stone ; 
He left no sculptured tomb or parchment dim, 
But trusted for all memory of him 

Men's hearts alone. 

Sometimes I long to see him as of old 
Judea saw, and in my gaze to hold 

His face enshrined ; 
Often, amid the world's tumultuous strife, 
Some slight memorial of his earthly life 

I long to find. 

Who sees the face sees but in part ; who reads 
The spirit which it hides sees all ; he needs 

No more. Thy grace — 
Thy life, in my life, Lord, give thou to me; 
And then, in truth, I may forever see 

My Master's face ! 



THE TRAGEDY OF SKULKING SINS. 327 



THE TRAGEDY OF SKULKING SINS. 

There are nearly always plenty of rats in a Penn- 
sylvania coal-mine. These rats never leave the mines 
so long as work is going on. The food of the mine 
mnles is kept in the mines, and on this the rats largely 
subsist. They swarm about when the mules are eat- 
ing, and sometimes the mules have to fight the rats to 
save their meal. When a mine lies idle any length 
of time, and the mules are taken out, the rats aban- 
don it, and become a great pest in the mining villages. 
Once a big coal -miners' strike was broken up by the 
rats. When work shut down the mules were taken 
out, and the rats, being thus deprived of their suste- 
nance, abandoned the mine and took up their quarters 
about the miners' shanties, where they soon became a 
terror to the families. The strike continued, and the 
supplies of the men became exhausted. Miners at 
neighboring colleries, who were at work, responded to 
the requests of their striking brothers for aid, and 
sent two wagon-loads of provisions and supplies of 
various kinds. These were taken in charge by a com- 
mittee appointed for the purpose, and what was not 
immediately distributed was stored in a building, 
from which it was to be given out from time to time 
to the neediest of the miners. The very first night 
the supplies were raided by a horde of rats, and every- 
thing was devoured or carried away. Four different 
lots of provisions were contributed by the sympathetic 
working miners, but it was impossible to save more 
than one-third of them from the rats. The miners 



328 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



were forced to weaken, and resume work on such 
terms as they could obtain, absolutely beaten by the 
rats. Many a man is hindered from his greatest suc- 
cess by rat-like sins that eat out the bottom of his 
pocketbook. Men who earn wages enough to live 
in peace and self-respect find that they can not sup- 
port their families and their sins at the same time. 
The mightiest labor problem of our time would find 
rapid solution if the drink-rat and the gambling-rat 
could be stamped to death. 

DEATH TRANSIENT; LIFE LASTING, 

Mrs. Farningham gives us in these lines a most in- 
spiring Easter message : 

Every clear, sun-silvered river 

Running to the sea, 
Every wind-swept, daisied meadow, 

Every budding tree, 

Moved by young Spring's glee, 
Tells us, with exulting breath, 
Life is victor over death. 

Every bird trills forth the secret 

In the lighted glade ; 
Every blossom tells the story 

Ere its petals fade ; 

Be not thou afraid ; 
Death is transient, life lasts on ; 
Perfect life through death is won. 

Long ago, within a garden 

Was an empty grave. 
Weeping women stood beside it, 

Whom the Lord forgave ; 

But he made them brave, 



THE QUIET HEROES. 



329 



Changed to dawn their sorrow's night, 
Flooded all the world with light ! 

Is the church to-day in sorrow 

Gazing on the cross ? 
Do we mourn a Savior dying, 

Weeping for his loss ? 

Let not grief engross 
Any loyal soul, since he 
Died to live eternally. 

God declares the resurrection 

In each new springtide ; 
Grace and peace to men are given 

Through Christ crucified ; 

Oh, let joy abide ! 
Tears are not for holy days : 
Bring him songs of thankful praise. 

THE QUIET HEROES. 

Nobody would wish to detract from the glory of 
Admiral Dewey in annihilating the Spanish fleet in 
the harbor of Manila, or from the wreath that adorns 
the brow of Lieutenant Hobson for his brilliant work 
with the Merrimac. But there are quieter heroes, 
whose heroism is just as noble in every way, about 
whom little is said. Lieutenant Victor Blue is a 
specimen of this type. He was sent into the hills 
back of Santiago to spy out the land. He saw the 
Spanish fleet there, and for the first time absolutely 
ascertained that all Admiral Cervera's ships save the 
Terror were in Commodore Schley's trap. It was not 
a very dramatic performance, but he risked his life at 
every step he took on land, and knew that if captured 



330 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



he would not be treated like an honored prisoner, as 
in the case of Hobson, but would be hanged as a spy. 
No place on the battle -line demands a supremer 
quality of courage than that which was exhibited by 
this hero on his lonely tour. The common walks of life 
are full of lonely heroes whose performances are never 
applauded, but who patiently climb the hills of life, 
risking a shot from ambush at every step, yet go on 
doing their duty when only God knows the heroic 
quality of their work. But God does know, and such 
work never goes unreckoned by him. He keeps a 
Book of Remembrance, and some day it shall be opened 
and all such heroes shall have their crown. 

A PERSONAL SAVIOR. 

A little poem entitled "My Savior," by a writer 
whose name is unknown to me, brings out with ten- 
der pathos the personal gratitude we owe to the 
Savior : 

Under an Eastern sky, 
Amid a rabble cry, 
A Man went forth to die 
For me ! 

Thorn-crowned his blessed head, 
Blood-stained his weary tread, 
Cross-laden, on he sped 
For me ! 

Pierced were his hands and feet ; 
Three hours o'er him beat 
Fierce rays of noontide heat 
For me ! 



SECRET ALLIANCES. 



331 



Thus wert thou made all mine ; 
Lord, make me wholly thine ; 
Grant grace and strength divine 
To me! 

In thought and word and deed 
Thy will to do, O lead 
My soul, e'en tho it bleed, 
To thee ! 

SECRET ALLIANCES, 

During the last few years the attention of the 
country and of the Government have been attracted 
to the obstruction to navigation in Florida rivers by 
the water hyacinth. It is a very delicate little orna- 
mental flowering plant, but when multiplied by mil- 
lions becomes very powerful. When a large steamer 
at full speed strikes a floating bank of hyacinths, it 
comes almost to a standstill. A screw propeller finds 
it impossible to penetrate a very large mass of the 
plants, as they become so entangled about the screw 
as to prevent it from revolving. A new complication 
has arisen in the problem. The Government was 
asked to make a fight for extermination on the ground 
that the plant was a pest ; but it now transpires that 
many of the farmers of Florida think the water hya- 
cinth a pretty good cattle food, and are quietly prop- 
agating it where it had not before existed. This 
strange development in the case has made it impos- 
sible for the Department at Washington to continue a 
war of extermination against the plant. Many peo- 
ple whose sins have shamed and disgraced them so 
that they have prayed for freedom have still contin- 



332 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



ued to cherish them in secret. God can not heip 
us in that way. There is only one way by which he 
can give us freedom from our enemy, and that is by 
stamping it out entirely. He must cleanse us from 
all sin or from none. If we open our hearts com- 
pletely to his coming, he will banish every evil guest. 



THE LESSON OF RESIGNATION. 

The lesson of resignation is one of the hardest God 
has to teach us. Happy indeed are we if, passing 
through these experiences, we issue at last into per- 
fect trust : 

I prayed for work : "Let me, dear Lord, 

A laborer in thy vineyard be." 
The answer came : "Dear child," it said, 

"With folded hands thou 'It best serve me." 

"But why," I cried, "with folded hands ? 

Urgent the need, the harvest great. " 
Gently the Master made reply, 

" ' They also serve who only wait. ' " 

I longed for health that so I might 

Enjoy a while this earthly life. 
Came restless days, and weary nights, 

And pain, discomfort, mental strife. 

And then I cried with wavering faith, 

"This constant crossing of my will 
And thwarted plans ! Can I be sure 

That my dear Savior loves me still ?" 

In pleading tones the Master said : 
" My changeless love thou canst not see ; 

Dear as the apple of mine eye, 
Poor, suffering child, thou art to me. 



QUEER IDEAS OF HONOR. 333 



"I hold thee, child, with watchful care ; 

Each thwarted plan, each change and loss, 
Is but to make thee pure within 

And cleanse thy soul, as gold, from dross." 

My faith returned, peace filled my soul, 

No longer did my heart rebel. 
Come pain, come disappointment sore, 

If he is with me all is well. 



QUEER IDEAS OF HONOR. 

Captain Sigsbee, the heroic commander of the de- 
stroyed battleship Maine, has been challenged by 
Lieutenant Carranza, late naval attache in Washing- 
ton of the Spanish legation, to fight a duel. Just be- 
fore leaving Washington for Canada, this Spanish 
attache sent a challenge to Captain Sigsbee to mortal 
combat to repel what he calls an "outrageous attack 
on the Spanish people," made in the captain's testi- 
mony before a Senate committee concerning the de- 
struction of the Maine. The lieutenant has said in 
an interview that after he has disposed of Captain 
Sigsbee he will also challenge Consul-General Lee. I 
suppose his idea is that if he could kill both these 
men the honor of Spain in regard to the destruction 
of the Maine would be forever cleared. Mrs. Sigsbee, 
who opened her husband's mail in his absence, pasted 
the challenge in a scrap-book as a curiosity. Ameri- 
can naval captains are debarred from fighting duels, 
and would be dismissed from the service for such con- 
duct. Real honor is never vindicated or sustained in 
such artificial ways. Honor is a thing of character, 



334 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



and can never be lost or won except by the action of 
the man himself. 

THANKSGIVING. 

Christina Eossetti points out that under all circum- 
stances one may find cause for thanksgiving to God, 
and so have happiness : 

My vineyard that is mine I have to keep 
Pruning for fruit the pleasant twigs and leaves. 

Tend thou thy cornfield : one day thou shalt reap 
In joy thy ripened sheaves. 

Or if thine be an orchard, graft and prop 
Food-bearing trees, each watered in its place ; 

Or if a garden, let it yield for crop 
Sweet herbs and herb of grace. 

But if my lot be sand, where nothing grows? — 
Nay, who hath said it? Tune a thankful psalm : 

For tho thy desert bloom not as the rose, 
It yet can rear thy palm. 

COOPERATION. 

A large wholesale shoe-house surprised its employees 
on Christmas Eve by enclosing in the pay envelope 
of each one of them a letter beginning as follows : 
" Our business for the past year has been fairly satis- 
factory. We feel disposed to share, in a measure, 
with our employees, and we herewith enclose a check 

for $ , which is ten per cent, of your salary for 

the year 1898. This we have done to all of our store 
employees who have been with us for one year or 
more. We want your help and cooperation to make 



THE PRICE OF PEACE. 



335 



this business still more of a success in 1899." This 
was not only a wise and graceful act on the part of 
this business firm, but it suggests the fact that coop- 
eration is necessary to great success in every depart- 
ment of human life ; not only in business circles, but 
in the home and in society, and in no place more cer- 
tainly than in the church, is great success contingent 
on harmonious and earnest cooperation on the part of 
all concerned. 

HAD A FRIEND. 

"What is the secret of your life?" asked Mrs. 
Browning of Charles Kingsley. " Tell me, that I may 
make mine beautiful, too. " " I had a friend. " Com- 
menting, one well says : " Truer words were never 
spoken. There is nothing that brings sunshine to our 
lives, takes us out of ourselves, and makes life really 
beautiful and worth the living, like a friend. " 

God never loved me in so sweet a way before. 

'Tis he alone who can such blessings send. 
And when his love would new expression find, 

He brought thee to me and he said, " Behold a friend ! " 

THE PRICE OF PEACE. 

The first Nathan Mayer, the founder of the Eoths- 
child family, was a miser and a coward. In his later 
years he was desperately afraid of assassins, and men 
whom he had robbed in the gambling game of the 
Exchange used to take a hideous revenge by sending 
him threatening letters which would make him shriek 
with terror. In terror he lived, in terror he died, at 



336 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Frankfort, in the circle of his brethren, crying, " He 
is trying to kill me ! " while the familiar faces of his 
kindred looked down on him in helpless pity. Money 
will not buy peace. Peace comes to those whose 
hearts are in harmony with God and who are con- 
scious of good will toward their fellows. 

SAVE THE FRAGMENTS. 

Some people when traveling or visiting or on a va- 
cation seem to feel that as their time is to be broken 
into small periods it is not worth while to undertake 
to exercise any helpful influence ; but that is a great 
mistake. The secret of rich strong lives is largely in 
the saving of the fragments of time for the gather- 
ing or distributing of something that is of benefit. 
Mary Lowe Dickinson sings this very impressively in 
a little poem, " If We Had But a Day " : 

We should fill the hours with the sweetest things, 

If we had but a day ; 
We should drink alone at the purest springs 

In our upward way ; 
We should love with a lifetime's love in an hour, 

If the hours were few ; 
We should rest, not for dreams, but for fresher power 

To be and to do. 

We should guide our wayward or wearied wills 

By the clearest light ; 
We should keep our eyes on the heavenly hills 

If they lay in sight ; 
We should trample the pride and the discontent 

Beneath our feet ; 
We should take whatever a good God sent 

With a trust complete. 



THE KING'S GOLD. 



337 



We should waste no moments in weak regret, 

If the day were but one ; 
If what we remember and what we forget 

Went out with the sun ; 
We should be from our clamorous selves set free 

To work or to pray, 
And to be what the Father would have us be, 

If we had but a day. 

THE KING'S GOLD, 

The Emperor of Germany celebrated Christmas- 
time by giving presents very widely. When he wit- 
nessed the exercises of the Guard recruits, he handed 
a number of gold pieces to the winners in person, and 
finally threw several handfuls of gold coins among 
the soldiers, for which there was a vigorous scram- 
bling. Later in the day he walked out and addressed 
a number of watchmen, laborers, and private citizens 
in a familiar way, and after inquiring into their cir- 
cumstances presented each of them with gold pieces. 
On his return to the palace he met a little old woman, 
to whom he said: "Well, little mother, how goes 
it? " The woman looked up in surprise, and not know- 
ing who it was that spoke to her, began to relate her 
adversities. The Kaiser interrupted her by giving 
her all the money he had left in his pockets and wish- 
ing her a merry Christmas. Our King has a wiser 
way of giving to his children the gold of the eternal 
kingdom. He does not on some special occasion fling 
it out in hanclfuls to be scrambled over, but he sup- 
plies all our need with intelligent love. If any go 
spiritually bankrupt it is their own fault, for the sup- 
22 



338 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



ply is unlimited and the willingness to bestow un- 
bounded. 

THE SONG THE WORLD NEEDS. 

Lida Diederich sings a strong note, under the title 
" The Listening Heart of the World, " concerning the 
message the world longs to hear. In studying it we 
may find suggestions of things we can do to answer 
that longing in the circle where we live : 

For a singer who stands on the height 
With a face turned toward the light, 
The light that for ever and ever streams 
Down from the land of hopes and dreams, 
Listens the heart of the world. 

For a singer of hope and cheer, 

Of courage that conquers fear, 

Of love that triumphs o'er loss and grief, 

Of pain that is merged in sweet relief, 

Listens the heart of the world. 

For a voice that shall sing through the night 
Of radiant stars alight, 
And with ringing notes of gladness speak 
Of the dawn that brightens beyond the peak, 
Listens the heart of the world. 

For the way is weary and long ; 
And a brooding sense of wrong, 
A consciousness that can not be stilled, 
Of bootless labor and lives unfilled, 
Burdens the heart of the world. 

Not for a bitter strain, 
Breathing of loss and pain, 
Flinging its sorrow and smart 
Back on its bruised heart, 
Listens the weary world ; 



EARTH'S CHANGING SCENES. 339 



But for the voice that saith, 

" Sorrow and pain and death 

Are only a part of the now and here, 

Beyond and to-morrow the way is clear " — 

Listens the heart of the world. 

Poised on the heights of time, 
Leans the singer with face sublime. 
This song of courage and hope and love 
Rises the discord of earth above, 
Listen, O heart of the world ! 

And earth shall take up the song 
And the souls that have waited so long 
Shall find from their burden a sure release, 
And thrill and fill with an infinite peace, 
Listen, O heart of the world ! 

EARTH'S CHANGING SCENES. 

A man returned to New York City during the holi- 
days, after having been away eighteen years, and 
went to an old hotel cafe, hoping to meet some of his 
friends who used to haunt that place. Not finding 
any of them, he went up to the oyster-counter, where 
he recognized a man who had been opening oysters 
there twenty years before. Calling him by name, he 
inquired if one of his old friends, whom he named, 
had been in that night. The oyster-knife dropped 
from the man's hand; he opened his eyes and mouth, 
but made no answer. He called over half a dozen 
other names, until finally the excited oyster-man found 
his voice and leaned forward to look at him closely. 
"Sir," said he solemnly, "the men you are asking for 
are all gone." "Gone where?" asked the stranger. 



340 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



"They are all dead," replied the oyster-opener, 
"most of them these many years. Why, where have 
you been that you didn't hear it? " "I have just ar- 
rived from South Africa, and I have not been in New 
York for eighteen years. I hurried to get here to 
meet my old friends on Christmas Eve. And so they 
are all dead. It makes a man feel lonely ; I think 
I'll go back to South Africa." And so all the earth's 
friendships soon pass away. How precious is the 
hope of the Christian that he is hastening to a land 
where there shall be no more good-bys and heart- 
breaking separations! 

GROWING OLD POETICALLY, 

William Roscoe Thayer has written out of his own 
life experience a little poem which would be the sal- 
vation of many a young man if he would but take 
home to himself the hint it suggests : 

I walked with poets in my youth, 

Because the world they drew 
Was beautiful and glorious 

Beyond the world I knew. 

The poets are my comrades still, 

But dearer than in youth ; 
For now I know that they alone 

Picture the world of truth. 

TRAINING FOR GREAT DEEDS. 

Many people make the blunder of delaying their 
training for great deeds while still cherishing the 
ambition that they will some time fill a large sphere. 



NEW-MINTED GOLD. 



341 



They think when the time arrives they will rise to 
the emergency; but when their opportunity comes 
their idle and useless life in humbler days has unfitted 
them to do the work of the larger place. James 
Kussell Lowell sings the theme with a vigor which 
ought to inspire young hearts to self -discipline. He 
says : 

In life's small things be resolute and great, 

To keep thy muscle trained ; knowest thou when Fate 

Thy measure takes, or when she'll say to thee, 

"1 find thee worthy ; do this deed for me " ? 

NEW-MINTED GOLD. 

To-day! Now! These are the gold-mines, the 
richest within our reach. In neither memory nor an- 
ticipation should we spend other than the luxury of 
leisure. Most of the time we should be dealing with 
brave hearts and industrious hands in the traffic of 
to-day. Bliss Carmen sings this in some very sug- 
gestive lines : 

We are as mendicants who wait 

Along the roadside in the sun. 
Tatters of yesterday and shreds 

Of morrow clothe us every one. 

And some are dotards, who believe 

And glory in the days of old ; 
While some are dreamers, harping still 

Upon an unknown age of gold. 

Hopeless or witless ! Not one heeds 
As lavish Time comes down the way 

And tosses in the suppliant hat 
One great new-minted gold To-day. 



342 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



GOD'S POWER, 

When John Quincy Adams was President of the 
United States he was very much interested in having 
a channel cut at the mouth of the North River, be- 
tween the towns of Scituate and Marshfield, on the 
Massachusetts coast. The national Government at- 
tempted to make a channel, but it was a failure. A 
recent great storm, however, has accomplished what 
seemed impossible, and now there is a channel two 
hundred and fifty feet wide and fifteen feet deep at 
low water, and it is being deepened at every ebb tide. 
Inside the channel there is a splendid harbor. All 
this wonderful work, which would have taken years 
of costly labor to perform, was done in a few hours 
by the waves, with no expense or damage to anybody. 
That same mighty power is ready to work together 
with the Christian Church whenever we surrender our- 
selves completely to do the will of God. He whose 
power can use the waves of the sea to cut a new chan- 
nel through the rocks and the earth, can cut a chan- 
nel for heavenly mercy into the hearts of lost sinners. 

THE HIDDEN LIFE, 

William C. Gannett, in his little poem entitled 
"The Secret Place," sounds a sweet note that will be 
food to every truly spiritual nature : 

The Lord is in his holy place, 

In all things near and far ; 
Shekinah of the snowflake he, 

And glory of the star ; 



HUSBANDING ONE'S RESOURCES. 343 



And secret of the April land 

That stirs the field to flowers, 
Whose little tabernacles rise 

To hold him through the hours. 

He hides himself within the love 

Of those whom we love best ; 
The smiles and tones that make our homes 

Are shrines by him possessed. 
He tents within the lonely heart, 

And shepherds every thought, 
We find him not by seeking long ; 

We lose him not, unsought. 

HUSBANDING ONE'S RESOURCES. 

When Colonel Roosevelt, who is near-sighted, went 
into battle, it is said that most of his luggage con- 
sisted of spectacles. Anxious to do his best work, 
and knowing his helplessness without his glasses, the 
brave leader of the Rough Eiders was determined not 
to fail on that account. He carried a dozen pair 
planted around his person and equipment, trying to 
distribute them so no one accident could include them 
all. One pair was sewed in his blouse, another in his 
belt, another in his hat, two in his saddle-bags, and 
so on. At the fight at Guasimas his horse was slightly 
wounded by a bullet, while held by an orderly, and 
plunged frantically against a tree. Colonel Roosevelt 
came rushing up, all anxiety, and began prying under 
the saddle-flap. "They haven't hurt the horse, sir," 
said the orderly. "I know," replied the Colonel, 
with tears in his voice, "but they've smashed my 
specs ! " We have in that incident one of the great- 



344 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



est elements of the strength of that very remarkable 
man. He cuts through to the center, and grasps the 
thing that is most important for his effectiveness. To 
be victorious spiritual workers we need that character- 
istic largely developed. We ought not to waste time 
caring for non-essentials, but we must take care of the 
armor and the tools that make us efficient soldiers of 
Jesus Christ. 

THE CHRISTIAN GRACES. 

Mrs. Farningham has written a striking poem in 
which she speaks of the Christian graces as personal 
companions on the journey of life : 

Who treads the path with thee? 

We all may choose our friends ; 
As they are will the journey be, 

And they will shape its ends. 

Therefore let Faith lead on ; 

Faith always knows the road 
And sees how best the goal is won, 

And how to ease the load. 

Take Hope along the way ; 

Hope's feet are strong and swift, 
Hope's eyes are bright through darkest day, 

Hope will thy soul uplift. 

Bid Courage be thy friend 

And make thee brave to dare 
When weakness calls thee to defend, 

And fear would prove a snare. 

Thy way let Goodness choose, 

Keep Goodness in thy sight, 
All guides that aid her not refuse, 

Hers is the path of light. 



ROSES IN WINTER. 



345 



Let Justice walk beside, 

He with sad brow and stern, 
Yet do not quail before that guide, 

Nor fear the truth to learn. 

But cl(u«.e^ tr i y ~ieart 

Kee^ weetest, best ; 

Love will remain tho all depart, 

And Love will give thee rest. 

Yet know that in the Christ 

All these for thee must be ; 
Oh, keep with him thy faithful tryst, 

And he will walk with thee. 

ROSES IN WINTER, 

The weather conditions which produced skating in 
Portland, Ore., not long ago, were rather remark- 
able. For many days the temperature remained al- 
most steadily a few degrees below freezing-point, 
days clear and sunshiny, and the nights a trifle colder. 
The continued low temperature at last froze still 
water, but without seriously damaging the rose- 
bushes. Beautiful buds and half -blown roses were to 
be found in many gardens, so that it was possible for 
people going out skating to pluck roses to wear as 
they glided over the ice. That is always possible in 
a spiritual way. The Christian must endure trial 
and hardship and wintry days like other people, but 
he never need be without the perfume and beauty of 
the roses of divine comfort to cheer him with the con- 
sciousness that the Heart of the Universe is warm 
with mercy and love, and is brooding over him with 
a father's kindness. 



346 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



HOW TO AWAKEN NOBILITY IN OTHERS, 

James Kussell Lowell declares that it is only by 
being noble ourselves that we can have the power to 
awaken nobility in the" people whom we meet. 

Be noble ! and the nobleness that lies 
In other men, sleeping but never dead, 
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own ; 
Then wilt thou see it gleam in many eyes, 
Then will pure light around thy path be shed, 
And thou wilt nevermore be sad and lone. 

A PRICELESS JEWEL. 

It is rare to meet a person who does not confess to 
the fascination of precious stones. The charm of an 
opal, for instance, seems more than the rainbow sus- 
pended in its hidden waters. There is a very inter- 
esting classification of appropriate gems for each per- 
son to wear. We are told that those born in J anuary 
should wear garnet, signifying friendship and fidel- 
ity ; February, amethyst, sincerity and peace ; March, 
bloodstone, wisdom, courage, and firmness; April, 
diamond, innocence; May, emerald, beloved and 
happy; June, agate, health, wealth, and long life; 
July, ruby, content; August, sardonyx, conjugal fe- 
licity; September, sapphire, sanity, peace, and ease 
of mind ; October, opal, hope ; November, topaz, 
friendship and true love; December, turquoise, suc- 
cess. There is a jewel not named in this list, but 
one which is far more precious than any of them. 
It is spoken of in the Book of Kevelation. Christ 



MERCY, PITY, PEACE, AND LOVE. 347 



says : " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of 
the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, 
and in the stone a new name written, which no man 
knoweth saving he that receiveth it." That is the 
most precious jewel known to mankind, and it is 
within the reach of the poorest man, or woman, or 
child on the earth. 

MERCY, PITY, PEACE, AND LOVE. 

A church stands for God in proportion as it exem- 
plifies "Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love." So sang 
William Blake : 

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love 

All pray in their distress, 
And to these virtues of delight 

Keturn their thankfulness. 

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love 

Is God, our Father dear ; 
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love 

Is man, his child and care. 

For Mercy has a human heart, 

Pity a human face, 
And Love the human form divine, 

And Peace the human dress. 

Thus every man in every clime, 

That prays in his distress, 
Prays to the human form divine, — 

Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace. 

And all must love the human form 

In heathen, Turk, or Jew ; 
Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell, 

There God is dwelling, too. 



348 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



EASY TO GO DOWNHILL. 

A recent traveler, in giving a description of his 
climbing Mount Popocatepetl, in Mexico, and visiting 
its crater, says that they were able to return from the 
top of the mountain to the snow-line in fifteen min- 
utes, covering a distance which had required them six 
hours to ascend. One sees things like that often in 
common life. A man struggles for years to build up 
a good reputation for honesty and integrity among his 
fellow men, and then in an unguarded hour he takes 
a fatal toboggan-slide that hurls him in a single act 
below where he began to climb twenty or thirty years 
before. It is those who persevere unto the end who 
win the crown, and no one can afford to grow careless 
or to cease to be watchful against temptation. 

THE LONGING FOR A WIDER CAREER. 

Celia Thaxter, in her beautiful poem, "Land- 
Locked," sings of that longing which has made many 
a young heart ache — the longing for a wider field and 
a fairer chance to exert oneself in the great world : 

Black lie the hills, swiftly doth daylight flee ; 
And, catching gleams of sunset's dying smile, 
Through the dusk land for many a changing mile 

The river runneth softly to the sea. 

O happy river, could I follow thee ! 

O yearning heart, that never can be still ! 

O wistful eyes, that watch the stedfast hill, 
Longing for level line of solemn sea ! 



POISONING THE BLOOD. 



349 



Have patience. Here are flowers and songs of birds, 
Beauty and fragrance, wealth of sound and sight, 
All summer's glory thine from morn till night, 

And life too full of joy for uttered words. 

Neither am I ungrateful ; but I dream 
Deliciously how twilight falls to-night 
Over the glimmering water, how the light 

Dies blissfully away, until I seem 

To feel the wind, sea-scented, on my cheek, 
To catch the sound of dusky, flapping sail 
And dip of oars and voices on the gale 

Afar off, calling low. My name they speak. 

O earth ! thy summer song of joy may soar, 
Ringing to heaven in triumph. I but crave 
The sad, caressing murmur of the wave 

That breaks in tender music on the shore. 



POISONING THE BLOOD. 

A horrible story has been circulated about an Amer- 
ican soldier who was with a party of his comrades 
drinking in the saloons of Manila. They fell in with 
some of the natives, with whom this man had a quar- 
rel ; and afterward, in order to get vengeance on him, 
he was drugged and the blood of a leper was inserted 
into his veins. After a while he awoke to the con- 
sciousness that he was probably fated to die of that 
terrible disease. The poison was already in this 
man's blood when he sought his recreation and happi- 
ness in a liquor-saloon. If the poison had not been 
in his moral nature, he would never have been in dan- 
ger of becoming inoculated with the leprosy. If a 



350 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



man did but know the awfulness of sin, he would fly 
from it as readily as from a leper, and with as much 
terror. 

NAMELESS SAINTS, 

Paul, in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, says that 
in addition to the names he mentions there are " oth- 
ers," of whom the world was not worthy, that he had 
no time to enumerate. Every age has these nameless 
saints whose lives are as brave and true as any that 
are recorded. Edward Everett Hale sings of them 
in strong lines : 

What were their names? I do not know their names. 
I only know they heard God's voice, and came: 
Brought all they loved across the sea, 
To live and work for God and me ; 
Felled the ungracious oak ; 
With horrid toil 
Dragged from the soil 
The thrice-gnarled roots and stubborn rock ; 
With plenty filled the mountainside ; 
And, when the work was done, without memorial died. 
No blaring trumpet sounded out their fame. 
They lived : they died. I do not know their names. 

No form of bronze and no memorial stones 
Show me the place where lie their moldering bones. 
Only a cheerful city stands, 
Builded by their hardened hands : 
Only ten thousand homes 
Where every day 
The cheerful play 
Of love and hope and courage comes. 
These are their monuments, and these alone. 
There is no form of bronze and no memorial stone. 



EEASONS FOB SINGING. 351 



THE POOR MAN'S CLUB. 

The wide discussion aroused by the unfortunate and 
unwise remark of a certain distinguished clergyman 
concerning the saloon as a social necessity, and a nec- 
essary club-room for working men, has brought out 
some very pertinent utterances. Among these, none 
have gone more surely to the point than those of 
Editor William Brewer, of the Salvation Army, who 
aptly calls attention to the fact that the saloon is not 
philanthropic. It does not exist for the sake of pro- 
viding social relaxation for the weary. Any associa- 
tion it affords only serves its deadly purpose the more. 
The wife and children need not only social relaxation, 
but relaxation from disgrace and dishonor, abuse and 
pinching poverty, and from the more trying necessity 
of wearing poor if not ragged clothes, and eating 
hardened crusts, while the saloon-keeper's wife and 
children revel in their purple and fine linen and fare 
sumptuously every day. 

REASONS FOR SINGING. 

William Partridge found in the market-place in Flor- 
ence, Italy, a caged lark, whose exulting song rebuked 
the watcher in that, with all the world for his own, 
he had so little melody to give back to God : 

A lark I found in a dark stall, alone, 
Fast in a cage his fettered wing could span ; 
Yet sang he as if the meadow were his own, 
His happy note all jarring sounds outran. 



352 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



I could have bought the singer ; but the song, — 
The heart behind the soug, — ah ! who could buy? 
Shut in by bars and stared at by the throng, 
He still was true to his one bit of sky. 

What a rich lesson from a lowly place 

And in a tiny thing the Lord may hide ! 

The vault of heaven shines down upon my face ; 

And I dare look it back, dissatisfied. 

The whole world for my own, I can not sing 

As this poor tiny bird, this prison thing. 

USEFUL SPIDER-WEBS, 

About ten years ago a French missionary started 
the systematic rearing of two kinds of spiders for 
their web, and The Board of Trade Journal states 
that a spider-web factory is now in successful opera- 
tion, where spider-web ropes are made, intended for 
balloons for the French military aeronautic section. 
The spiders are arranged in groups of twelve above a 
reel, upon which the threads are wound. It is by no 
means easy work for the spiders, for they are not re- 
leased until they have furnished from thirty to forty 
yards of thread each. The web is washed, and thus 
freed from the outer reddish and sticky cover. Eight 
of the washed threads are then taken together, and 
of this cords are woven which are stronger and much 
lighter than cords of silk of the same thickness. It 
is interesting surely to know that so delicate a thing 
as the strand of a spider's web can be multiplied until 
it becomes a strong rope that might be used to strangle 
a man to death. So sinful thoughts, shadowy and 



THE TEMPLE IN OUR BREASTS. 353 



unreal at first, if indulged in may become the strong 
cords of lust and bind a man to his utter undoing. 

THE TEMPLE IN OUR BREASTS. 

Henry Van Dyke in a beautiful poem sublimely sets 
forth our dependence upon the presence of G-od to 
illuminate and glorify the temple of the soul : 

thou whose boundless love bestows 

The joys of life, the hope of heaven ; 
Thou whose unchartered mercy flows 

O'er all the blessings thou hast given ; 
Thou by whose light alone we see ; 
Thou by whose truth our souls, set free, 
Are made imperishably strong ; 
Hear thou the solemn music of our song ! 

Grant us the knowledge that we need 

To solve the questions of the mind ; 
Light thou our candle while we read, 

And keep our hearts from going blind ; 
Enlarge our vision to behold 
The wonders thou hast wrought of old ; 
Eeveal thyself in every law, 
And gild the towers of truth with holy awe ! 

O God, make of us what thou wilt ; 

Guide thou the labor of our hand ; 
Let all our work be surely built 

As thou, the Architect, hast planned ; 
But whatsoe'er thy power shall make 
Of these frail lives, do not forsake 
Thy dwelling. Let thy presence rest 
Forever in the temple of our breast ! 

23 



354 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



FAITHFUL SHEPHERD. 

A Colorado shepherd tells this story of a dog which 
is his efficient helper in taking care of a large flock of 
sheep. On one occasion the dog was left to watch 
the flock near the herder's cabin while he got his sup- 
per. After he had eaten he went out to where the 
sheep were, and told the dog to put them in the cor- 
ral. This she refused to do : and, altho she had had 
no supper, she started off over the prairie as fast as 
she could go. The herder put the sheep in the corral 
and went to bed. About midnight he was awakened 
by the loud barking of a dog down by the corrals, and 
to his astonishment found the dog with a band of 
about fifty sheep which had strayed off during the 
previous day without the herder's knowledge ; but the 
poor dog knew it, and, tho hungry and tired, she had 
gone seeking after them until she found them. The 
dog did this out of fidelity to its master and a sense 
of duty. How much more should we, who have 
known the love of Christ our Savior, keep watch over 
the feeble and weak and young of our community who 
are wandering away and being lost from the flock. 
Surely if a dog can do that much, we who have been 
so greatly blessed can show fidelity and love in return 
for the great love wherewith He has loved us. 

DIVINE DISCONTENT. 

There is a contentment which Paul speaks of, 
which makes us submissive to God's will and is 
greatly to be desired ; but there is a divine kind of 



DRIFTING HULKS. 



355 



discontent which prompts us to rise in the scale of 
being, ever onward and upward, which some unknown 
poet has beautifully expressed in these lines : 

Be not content, contentment means inaction ; 

The growing soul aches on its upward quest ; 
Satiety is twin to satisfaction ; 

All great achievements spring from life's unrest. 

The tiny roots, deep in the dark mold hiding, 

. Would never bless the earth with leaf and flower 

Were not an inborn restlessness abiding 

In seed and germ to stir them with its power. 

Were man contented with his lot forever, 

He had not sought strange seas with sails unfurled ; 

And the vast wonder of our shores had never 
Dawned on the gaze of an admiring world. 

Prize what is yours, but be not quite contented : 

There is a healthful restlessness of soul 
By which a mighty purpose is augmented 

In urging men to reach a higher goal. 

So, when the restless impulse rises, driving 
Your calm content before it, do not grieve : 

It is the upward reaching and the striving 
Of the God in you to achieve, achieve. 

DRIFTING HULKS. 

A proposition is before Congress to prohibit the 
navigation of the lower Mississippi River by vessels 
which have no means of propulsion, and therefore can 
not control themselves, but drift down, at the mercy 
of the current, in constant danger of collision with 
the steamboats. The trouble just at present is due 
ainly to the drifting coal-barges, which are turned 



356 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



loose in the river at the stream's mercy. These 
barges come down from Pittsburg, laden with coal, 
but under the control of a powerful tug. They land 
on the bank opposite some plantation, and the coal 
they contain is sold. The barges, being of no value 
afterward, are turned loose, like worn-out horses, to 
go their own way. This, however, is extremely dan- 
gerous, as they are powerful and heavy. They are 
without control of any kind, carry no lights, and are 
a constant peril. There are moral hulks still more 
dangerous which drift about on the stream of life — 
men and women who were once loaded with a rich 
cargo, and who were controlled and mastered by a 
wise and loving hand, but who by their neglect and 
their sins have lost their spiritual enginery, and, with- 
out steam or cargo or lights, with no power to control 
themselves, they drift, dangerous hulks, putting peril 
in the way of everybody they meet. 

HELPING OURSELVES BY HELPING OTHERS. 

How beautifully Whittier sets forth the blessing of 
helpfulness in this couplet : 

Heaven's gate is shut to him who comes alone : 
Save thou a soul, and it shall save thine own. 

THE DEEP THAT COUCHETH BENEATH. 

A town in North Dakota has for several years 
boasted one of the finest flowing artesian wells in the 
State. The water comes gushing out at high pressure 
in a stream as large as a man's arm. The water has 



ADD UP THE BLESSINGS. 357 



always been known to be mixed with gas, but not un- 
til recently have they discovered a way of separating 
the gas from the water, so that the streets and resi- 
dences will be lighted and heated from the same well 
that furnishes them with water. The great earth be- 
neath is rich with treasures when we bore deep enough 
to find them. Life is like that. People who live sim- 
ply on the surface find, as the years go on, that its 
verdure will fade and its sweetest hopes wither. But 
those who dig deep into the purpose of life find that 
God's love coucheth beneath, and that they may 
draw on that without fear of exhausting the abundant 
supply. 

ADD UP THE BLESSINGS. 

E. I. Tupper in his little poem, "A Thankful 
Heart," sets in array many of the common blessings 
that should awaken us to thanksgiving : 

For all that God in mercy sends — 

For health and children, home and friends : 

For comforts in the time of need, 

For every kindly word or deed, 

For happy thoughts and holy talk, 

For guidance in our daily walk — 

In everything give thanks ! 

For beauty in this world of ours, 
For verdant grass and lovely flowers, 
For song of birds, for hum of bees, 
For the refreshing summer breeze, 
For hill and plain, for streams and wood, 
For the great ocean's mighty flood — 
In everything give thanks ! 



358 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



For the sweet sleep which comes with night, 

For the returning morning light, 

For the bright sun that shines on high, 

For the stars glittering in the sky— 

For these and everything we see, 

O Lord ! our hearts we lift to thee ; 

In everything give thanks ! 

OPENING THE PRISON DOORS. 

In Fort St. Philip, at Cavite, near Manila, the 
Americans found two typical dungeons of the dark 
ages. Each was in the wall, and was entered by a 
narrow passage just about large enough to crawl 
through. It ended about six feet from the floor of 
the cell. Human bones were found in each of these 
dungeons. The visitors shuddered as they passed the 
place of execution in one corner of this fort. The 
culprit faced the wall and was fired at by a squad of 
soldiers. The wall was fairly peppered with hundreds 
of holes made by bullets. Some of the holes were 
recently made, and the great number showed what a 
contemptible estimate Spain places on human life. 
If those mute walls could only tell all they have wit- 
nessed in three centuries of Spanish cruelty, what a 
horrible tale they would unfold ! Surely it is the part 
of a Christian nation to throw open those prison doors 
forever. But when we think of the cruel bondage 
caused by drunkenness, which is encouraged by gov- 
ernment license of the liquor-saloon, it is easy to see 
that to be consistent we have many a dungeon door 
to open in America — dungeons where the bones of the 



ROYAL TENDERNESS. 



359 



victims lie on the floor, and where the story of cru- 
elty can not be outclassed in horror even by Spain. 

LIFE'S BEDTIME. 

It is beautiful to see white-haired men and women 
coming to old age in a sweet and happy spirit ; and 
meeting death with loving reverence like children 
who say their evening prayers with smiling faces. 
Oliver Wendell Holmes lived such a life and sings of 
such an evening in these verses : 

Not bedtime yet ! The full-blown flower 
Of all the year — this evening hour — 

With friendship's flame is bright ; 
Life still is sweet, the heavens are fair, 
Tho fields are brown and woods are bare, 
And many a joy is left to share 

Before we say Good-night ! 

And when, our cheerful evening past, 
The nurse, long waiting, comes at last, 

Ere on her lap we lie 
In wearied nature's sweet repose, 
At peace with all her waking foes, 
Our lips shall murmur, ere they close, 

Good-night ! and not Good-by ! 

ROYAL TENDERNESS. 

A very pretty story is told of the German Empress, 
which occurred on her recent visit to Westphalia. In 
a village close to the imperial headquarters the 
widow of a captain in the merchant service occupies 
a small room. She is an invalid, bedridden, and very 



360 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



old ; but her one great wish was to see the Empress 
drive past the carpenter's cottage where she lies on 
her little bed. Some kind soul had suggested to the 
chamberlain of the Empress that it would be a great 
kindness if the imperial carriage should be allowed to 
drive slowly when passing the invalid's window. The 
request came to the ears of the Empress, and in her 
kindness of heart she left her carriage, paid a long 
visit to the sick-room, and left the lonely sufferer in 
a state of happiness greater than words can tell. 
That was done in the spirit of Christ ; no other royal 
personage makes so many such visits as he. He 
comes to the house of the poor as readily as to the 
palace of the rich. He brings heaven's best to earth's 
poorest, and lifts the poor and the weak and the sin- 
ful up into fellowship with himself and his friends 
forever. 

THE SEEKING CHRIST. 

Mrs. Farningham sings of that beautiful picture 
which Jesus gives us of the Good Shepherd who leaves 
the ninety and nine in the fold and goes patiently 
seeking through the night for the one lost sheep : 

The wandering soul goes forth alone, 

Farther from home with each dark night, 
And hides him from the friendly light, 

And only echoes back our moan. 

But One who loves goes after him, 

O'er trackless moor, and mountain slope, 
Nor ceases toil, nor loses hope, 

Tho miles are long and days are dim. 



THE TEARS OF THE GREAT. 



361 



He searches for him everywhere, 
He listens for the sigh of fear. 
The faintest cry will reach his ear, — 

The boon will be before the prayer. 

He will not weary, day nor night, 

Eor any time, at any cost, 

The Christ will seek and save the lost, 
And bring him home into the light. 

Strong, patient, and enduring One ! 

We also seek, but soon we tire ; 

He, burning with intense desire, 
Will cease not till the work be done. 

Until he find ! Until he find ! 
So full of strong resolve is he, 
No matter where the lost one be, 

The Christ will seek until he find. 

O Seeker pitiful ! We have 
Our lost ones, and we know not where 
They languish, nor if any prayer 

Beseeches thee to help and save. 

But in thy heart, not theirs, we trust : 
They are not lost, for thou wilt find ! 
We hear thy word, divinely kind, — 

" I seek and save because I must ! " 



THE TEARS OF THE GREAT. 

Many of the great people who have written their 
names large in the history of their time have been 
known to shed tears. The majority, however, wept 
for others' woes, but smiled upon their own. Queen 
Victoria wept when informed that it was her destiny 
to wear a crown and rule a vast empire. The inci- 



362 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



dent was seized upon by Mrs. Browning for one of 
her most beautiful poems, "She Wept to Wear a 
Crown," and her Majesty has always been a warm 
admirer of the writings of this poet. Sixty years 
later, at the jubilee, the Queen sobbed and shed tears 
of thanksgiving before thousands of her subjects. 
Mr. Gladstone, during the delivery of one of his great 
orations concerning the Bulgarian atrocities, was so 
carried away by his feelings that tears coursed down 
his cheeks, and the flow of his eloquence was arrested 
for a few minutes, so that he might recover his com- 
posure. But the most significant tears ever shed in 
this world were those which fell from the eyes of 
Jesus Christ when he looked over the wicked city of 
Jerusalem, that had rejected him, and was to crucify 
him, and said: "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that 
killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent 
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy chil- 
dren together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens 
under her wings, and ye would not ! " 

THE WEEPING CHILDREN. 

These lines, written by Mrs. Browning to describe 
the cruelty to factory children more than a generation 
ago in England, may well be applied to-day to tens 
of thousands of children whose young lives are 
blighted by the drunkenness of their parents : 

Do ye hear the children weeping, my brothers, 

Ere the sorrow comes with years ? 
They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, 

And that can not stop their tears. 



THE ROCK OF AGES. 



363 



The young lambs are bleating in the meadows ; 

The young birds are chirping in the nest ; 
The young fawns are playing with the shadows ; 

The young flowers are blowing toward the west : 
But the young, young chi ldren, my brothers ! 

They are weeping bitterly. 
They are weeping in the playtime of the others, 

In the country of the free. 

THE ROCK OF AGES. 

A trestle twenty-five feet high spanning a part of 
a swamp traversed by the Philadelphia, Beading 
& New England Railroad, near Pine Plains, in Dutch- 
ess County, N. Y., has sunk completely out of sight 
in a bog. In another part of the swamp a tele- 
graph pole alongside the track has completely disap- 
peared. Sixty men are at work with construction and 
gravel trains, piling one hundred and twenty cars of 
gravel and stone a day upon the road bed, which up 
to this writing sinks as fast as filled in. A piece of 
pipe used for soundings was driven one hundred and 
twenty feet into the bog and no bottom was found. 
Farmers for miles around flock to the scene of this 
phenomenon, and speculate upon the possibility of 
their houses also sinking into the swamp-land. Hab- 
its of dissipation, especially through the use of strong 
drink, are like this treacherous bog. Ever and anon 
men who have seemed solid and strong sink out of 
sight of the business and social world, and the sur- 
prising part of it is that many people who have 
watched them disappear go on risking their lives by 
living on the same treacherous bog. Only on the 



364 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



rock of righteousness and purity of life is there safety. 
We need to get hold of the intensity which Paul indi- 
cates when he says to the Romans, " Abhor that which 
is evil; cleave to that which is good." 

FINDING FAULT WITH PROVIDENCE. 

James Whitcomb Riley sings with keen discern- 
ment of the folly of finding fault with Providence : 

The signs is bad when folks commence 

A-findin' fault with Providence, 

And balkin' 'cause the earth don't shake 

At every prancin' step they take. 

No man is great till he can see 

How less than little he can be 

Ef, stripped to self, and stark and bare, 

He hung his sign out anywhere. 

My doctern is to lay aside 

Contentions, and be satisfied. 

Jest do your best, and praise er blame 

That follows, that counts jest the same. 

I've alius noticed great success 

Is mixed with troubles more or less, 

And it's the man who does the best 

That gets more kicks than all the rest. 

THE LIMITATIONS OF MONEY. 

There is living in a town in Pennsylvania a very 
rich man, who is perhaps the only armless and legless 
millionaire on earth. His arms were amputated be- 
low the elbow and his legs below the knee twenty-two 
years ago. The afflicted man manages to walk with 
difficulty no two automatic legs made for him in Vi- 



CHRISTIAN COURAGE. 



365 



enna and fitted up with ingenious mechanism that 
materially aids his locomotion. He also has two me- 
chanical forearms, the hands of which enable him to 
hold a handkerchief or a newspaper, and to pick up 
articles from the table. These four artificial limbs 
cost him $25,000, and are perhaps the most perfect 
of their kind in the world. Yet how gladly this man 
would give hundreds of thousands of dollars if he 
could have again the perfect body with which he was 
born. There are many things money will not buy, 
and many people who have perfect bodies and the 
complete use of all their senses and faculties fail to 
realize the supreme wealth thus conferred upon them. 

BEING IN OURSELVES WHAT WE DESIRE IN 
OTHERS. 

Let us cultivate in ourselves what we long for in 
our friends : sweetness of character, evenness of tem- 
per, confidence, loyalty, patience, sympathy, and love. 
Anna L. Waring prays : 

I ask Thee for a thoughtful love, 

Through constant watching wise, 
To meet the glad with joyful smiles, 

And wipe the weeping eyes ; 
A heart at leisure from itself, 

To soothe and sympathize. 

CHRISTIAN COURAGE, 

Writing from one of the hospitals at the front with 
the volunteers, one of the Christian workers said: 
"Our hospital work is becoming tremendous. Ty- 



366 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



phoid fever is the trouble in a majority of cases. 
Yesterday, as I was leaving one ward, I turned and 
said to the sick men: 'Well, boys, keep up good 
courage.' One poor fellow, who was almost crying, 
said: ' You keep up your courage. Do not forsake 
us.' " I doubt not there are many people who are 
not Christians who yet long in their hearts that the 
Christians who are interested in their salvation shall 
not grow weary and give up the struggle in their be- 
half. Let us have the courage of our divine Leader. 

THE SABBATH SUNSHINE. 

No one can estimate how much blessing, aside from 
the direct religious teaching, the Sabbath is to^the 
world in the good cheer it brings to millions of homes : 

The Sabbath sunshine blessed the earth to-day 

With large, still utterance of a thought divine : 
Forever freely thus — it seemed to say — 

Doth heavenly love on human darkness shine. 

Oh, bright beyond all suns that wondrous light of thine ! 

To-night the Sabbath moonlight, with white wings, 
Dove-like, doth brood o'er earth's dark, fevered breast : 

So God's great calm its gift of healing brings 
To souls long tossed in sorrowful unrest, 
And leaves therein the peace that can not be expressed. 

INSPIRING ONE ANOTHER. 

During the battle of Manila the band of a British 
man-of-war nearby played " The Star-Spangled Ban- 
ner." One can imagine how it must have warmed the 
hearts of the brave sailors on our ships when they 



HOLDING ON TO FAITH. 



367 



heard those strains rising from the British vessel. 
They felt that friendly hearts were beating behind 
the music — hearts that would prove true allies if they 
were needed. Every Christian soldier should make 
every other Christian within the reach of his influ- 
ence, no matter what denominational flag he may 
fight under, feel the touch of his sympathetic brother- 
hood. Thus may we inspire one another to grander 
deeds. 

THE PATRIOT'S PRAYER. 

Every true American patriot can join in Whittier's 
prayer : 

make thou us, through centuries long, 
In peace secure, in justice strong ; 
Around our gift of freedom draw 
The safeguards of thy righteous law ; 
And, cast in some diviner mold, 
Let the new cycle shame the old. 

HOLDING ON TO FAITH. 

A workman repairing the roof of one of the highest 
buildings in Dublin lost his footing and fell. Stri- 
king a telegraph-line in his fall, he managed to grasp 
it. " Hang on for your life ! " shouted a fellow work- 
man. Some of the spectators rushed off to get a mat- 
tress on which he could drop. But the workman, 
after holding on for a few seconds longer, suddenly 
cried out, " Stand from under ! " dropped, and lay 
senseless in the street. He was brought to the hos- 
pital, and on becoming conscious was asked why he 



368 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



did not hang on longer. " Shure, I was afraid the 
wire wud break," he feebly replied. In his panic he 
did not remember that he would be no worse off if it 
did break than he would be to let go. Many people let 
go their faith in Christ in the same way. The devil 
fills them with fears that their Christian faith will not 
sustain them, and so, letting loose, they fall into the 
depths of the "horrible pit," when if they would only 
hold on they would find that the divine word never 
fails. 

FINDING A FRIEND, 

How true are these strong lines on the blessedness 
of friendship : 

He who has found a new star in the sky 
Is not so fortunate as one who finds 
A true, deep-hearted friend ; 
The stars must die, 
They are but creatures 
Of the sun and winds ; 

But friendship throws her first sheet-anchor deep 
Beside the shore-lines of eternity. 

OBEDIENCE BETTER THAN SUCCESS. 

The agent of a powerful and wealthy business house 
saw an opportunity by which he felt sure he could 
make an enormous profit for the firm, but in order to 
do so he would be compelled to disobey the explicit 
instructions which had been given him. He dis- 
obeyed his orders and carried through a very success- 
ful deal, by which his employers won large profits. 
If he had obeyed his orders he would have lost. 



THE CHANGING SONG. 



369 



Contrary to his expectations, instead of being com- 
mended for his shrewdness he was promptly dis- 
charged from their employment. That business firm 
acted wisely. They could not trust an employee who 
would not obey orders. Next time he disobeyed he 
might have lost heavily. God does not demand of 
us success, but obedience; it is for us to keep his 
commandments, and he will take care of the results. 

THE CHANGING SONG. 

Kate R. Stiles expresses, very strongly the thought 
that while the song of middle age and later years will 
not be the same as in youth, and while we can not 
always sing in the major strain, we may still have 
melody in our souls and a song for every experience 
of life: 

Don't let the song go out of your life ; 

Tho it chance sometimes to flow 
In a minor strain, it will blend again 
With the major tone, you know. 

What tho shadows rise to obscure life's skies 

And hide for a time the sun ; 
They sooner will lift, and reveal the rift, 
If you let the melody run. 

Don't let the song go out of your life ; 

Tho your voice may have lost its trill, 
Tho the tremulous notes should die in the throat, 
Let it sing in your spirit still. 

There is never a pain that hides not some gain, 

And never a cup of rue 
So bitter to sup but what in the cup 
Lurks a measure of sweetness, too. 

24 



370 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Don't let the song go out of your life ; 

Ah ! it never would need to go 
If with thought more true and a broader view 

We looked at this life below. 

Oh, why should we moan that life's springtime has flown, 

Or sigh for the fair summer-time ? 
The autumn hath days filled with paeans of praise, 

And the winter hath bells that chime. 

Don't let the song go out of your life ; 

Let it ring in the soul while here, 
And when you go hence it shall follow you thence, 

And sing on in another sphere. 

Then do not despond, and say that the fond, 

Sweet songs of your life have flown ; 
For if ever you knew a song that was true, 

Its music is still your own. 

SIN'S VAGABONDS, 

In the forests of Galicia, the peasants have just 
captured a wild man who for years has been the ter- 
ror of the district. Travelers in numerous instances 
had been attacked by him, and he was accustomed to 
plunder the cottages of the peasantry for food. By 
those who to their sorrow had seen the man he was 
described as a monster, unkempt, and covered with 
hair from head to foot. Finally a hunting party was 
organized, and the wild man was captured after des- 
perate resistance. His appearance quite bore out the 
worst of the descriptions. After he had been washed, 
shaved, and clothed, he was identified as a man who 
had once held high public office in Austria. He had 
moved in the highest circles, but finally embezzled a 



GOD'S FORBEARANCE. 



371 



large sum of money. To escape pursuit lie took ref- 
uge in the forest, and his fear of detection made him 
a vagabond, and gradually he was transformed into 
a savage. Sin makes vagabonds of many victims. 
It has been doing it ever since the days of Cain ; yet 
Christ is able to forgive and save even these. The 
poor man whom he found in Gadara must have been 
as bad as this poor man of the forest, but Christ 
drove the evil spirits from him, and he was soon 
clothed and in his right mind. 

GOD'S FORBEARANCE. 

The patience of God, his great kindness in watch- 
ing over his children for good, comes out beautifully 
in Mrs. Farningham/s little poem, "A Story of a 
Tree " : 

It stood in the open, a shapely tree, 
Symmetrical, strong, and grand ; 
Nature gave it ungrudgingly 

Full space, fresh air, rich land ; 
Branches of graceful curves it bore, 

And of leaves a laughing host ; 
It was the king of the forest trees, 
And the village love and boast. 

But the hand of adversity touched the tree, 

And its springs of life were low, 
Yet it held its head erect in the breeze, 

And it made a brave, bright show. 
A little longer it kept its leaves, 

But they faded one by one, 
And the bare tree sighed for departed joys, 
For its work for the year was done. 



372 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Said a child, "The poor old tree is dead, 

It has not a leaf to show ; 
It is no more use to the bees and birds, 

It is killed by the frost and snow ; 
It is nothing now but a bunch of wood, 

Withered and gray and brown ; 
It ought to make room for a younger tree — 

Let the woodman cut it down." 

But the heart of the tree was beating yet, 

And its head was clear and strong. 
"Ah ! the woodman knows me well," it said, 

"And he does his trees no wrong. 
I am to rest for a little while, 

With blessings of sun and rain, 
But I shall be crowned with my beautiful leaves 

When the springtime comes again." 

THE ARMY OF PEACE. 

The standing army of Eussia is usually put at 
800,000 men; of Germany, at 600,000; of Austria, 
at 275,000; and of Great Britain, at 225,000. Yet 
there are, it appears by the last published report of the 
Interstate Commerce Commission, 830,000 railroad 
employees in the United States. At the present ratio 
of increase there are now 50,000 more railroad em- 
ployees in the United States than there were in 1895, 
which would bring the total up to nearly 900,000. 
Here is an army in which there is no mustering out 
and no war footing; for the railroad army of the 
United States, larger than the number of railroad 
employees of any other country, is essentially an 
army of peace. But there is another army of peace 
greater than that. It is composed of the men and 



TIMBER ON CHRIST'S CARPENTER BENCH. 373 

women who have sworn to be good soldiers of Jesus 
Christ. Every such soldier should hold himself in 
perfect obedience to the Captain of his salvation, and 
in perfect fellowship with every other soldier in the 
army of the Lord, no matter what the denominational 
division in which he may be serving. 

TIMBER ON CHRIST'S CARPENTER BENCH. 

George Macdonald, the poet-novelist, has written 
a very striking little poem, entitled "At Joseph's 
Bench," in which he brings out strongly the thought 
that we should hold ourselves at the Master's dis- 
posal, to be wrought into something good and great 
by his skilful hands : 

Lord ! at Joseph's humble bench 

Thy hands did handle, saw, and plane ; 
Thy hammer nails did drive and clench, 

Avoiding knot, and humoring grain. 
That thou didst seem thou wast indeed ; 

In sport thy tools thou didst not use, 
Nor helping hinds nor fishers need, 

Nor laborer's hire, too nice, refuse. 
Lord, might I be but as a saw, 

A plane, a chisel, in thy hand ! 
No, Lord ! I take it back in awe ; 

Such prayer for me is far too grand. 

1 pray, O Master ! let me lie 

As on thy bench the favored wood ; 
Thy saw, thy plane, thy chisel ply, 

And work me into something good. 
No, no ; ambition, holy-high, 

Urges for more than both to pray : 
Come in, gracious Force ! I cry ; 

O Workman, share my shed of clay ! 



374 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



Then I, at bench, or desk, or oar, 

With last or needle, net or pen, 
As thou in Nazareth of yore, 

Shall do the Father's will again. 

FAMILY RELIGION. 

In a recent shipwreck at sea, among those who were 
in immediate danger was a family consisting of father 
and mother and two children. The father jumped 
into a life-boat, and the mother threw the children one 
after the other into the father's waiting arms, and 
then leaped into the boat herself, and thus the whole 
family were saved. How many families there are 
who might be saved from sin and from the danger of 
eternal shipwreck in the same way. When the father 
takes to the life-boat it is easy for the mother to turn 
the children that way and to follow them herself. 

BRING YOUR FLOWERS NOW. 

Mr. E. F. Hodges has written a poem bringing out 
clearly the importance of saying our kind words of 
appreciation and stretching out the hand of helpful 
love now, while they our friends are alive and we can 
do them good, rather than to wait until death has 
taken them beyond our reach of blessing : 

Kisses which fall upon the dead's mute lips, 
Like dew on roses which the first frost nips, 

Come all too late ; 
'Tis better far to give them while the lips can speak ; 
The golden cord of life at best is weak ; 

Ah ! do not wait. 



ABUNDANT RESOURCES. 375 



Kind words in ears whose earthly powers are spent, 
Like sunshine on the tree by lightning rent, 

Can give no balm : 
'Tis better far to give them while those ears can hear; 
For life has much of wo and much of fear ! 

And Love brings calm. 

It is too late, when life's lamp burneth low, 
When hands once warm are chill as winter's snow, 

To do kind deeds ; 
'Tis better here where feet are prone to slide, 
'Tis better now than wait till eventide, 

To help their needs. 

Ah, friends ! dear friends, — if any such there be, — 
Keep not your loving thoughts away from me 

Till I am gone : 
I want them now to help me on my way, 
As lonely watchers want the light of day 

Ere it is morn. 

And tho sometimes my heart, o'er some sore wrong 
Long brooding, weaves some bitterness in song, 

'Tis but a shade 
Within life's textures where the best are poor. 
Oh, close not up to many faults Love's door ! 

I need your aid. 

ABUNDANT RESOURCES. 

In connection with the Pacific cable a very interest- 
ing question arises. From where is the gutta-percha 
for this gigantic cable to come? Every whisper of 
the construction of a new line of cable sends the 
gutta-percha market at Singapore, India, up by leaps 
and bounds. The ruling price of the gum is the high- 



376 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



est at present that has ever obtained. It is claimed 
that there is not a large enough supply of gutta-per- 
cha left in the world to build a cable from San Fran- 
cisco to Manila. If that is so, we may be sure that 
something else will be found to take its place. God's 
storehouses have never given out yet, and they will 
not now. When the whales began to run short, the 
pessimist said that the world would soon be in dark- 
ness for lack of oil. But coal oil took its place ; and 
now that coal-oil wells are beginning to give way and 
show signs of emptying, electricity is rapidly taking 
its place. This abundance in the natural world is 
only a suggestion of the abundant resources of God in 
the spiritual realm. Paul declares that these spiri- 
tual riches are unsearchable, and that they are abun- 
dant to supply all our needs. 

MOPE OR HOPE. 

Priscilla Leonard, in a little poem entitled "The 
Two Sides of It," brings out in very strong contrast 
two lives, one of which, viewing the dark side of every- 
thing, went moping along the path, and the other, 
seeing the bright side, was ever hoping : 

There was a girl who always said 

Her fate was very hard ; 
From the one thing she wanted most 

She always was debarred. 
There always was a cloudy spot 

Somewhere within her sky ; 
Nothing was ever just quite right, 

She used to say, and sigh. 



POWER OF SELF- CONCENTRATION. 377 



And yet her sister, strange to say, 

Whose lot was quite the same, 
Found something pleasant for herself 

In every day that came. 
Of course things tangled up sometimes 

For just a little while ; 
But nothing ever stayed all wrong 

She used to say, and smile. 

So one girl sighed and one girl smiled 

Through all their lives together ; 
It didn't come from luck or fate, 

From clear or cloudy weather. 
The reason lay within their hearts, 

And colored all outside ; 
One chose to hope, and one to mope, 

And so they smiled and sighed. 

POWER OF SELF-CONCENTRATION. 

A friend of the late Dr. William Pepper, of Phila- 
delphia, tells how lie could go to sleep at will. 

"Will you please excuse me, Mrs. ? " he would 

say sometimes. " I could talk to you much more sat- 
isfactorily if I had a few minutes' nap. Jane, make 

Mrs. comfortable, and wake me in about ten 

minutes." Outside, the office would be crowded with 
people waiting to see him — about the Philadelphia 
museums, about the University of Pennsylvania, the 
Public Library, or about their health ; but he would 
go into his own room behind the office, would stretch 
out on the lounge, throw a rug over his knees, and, 
closing his eyes, would be asleep at once. Ten min- 
utes later he would be roused by his servant and 
would at once resume his conversation with the pa- 



378 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



tient at the point at which it had been dropped. But 
he would show great clearness of mind from the brief 
recreation of his strength. If Christians would bring 
themselves under such complete spiritual discipline 
that they could in the midst of the taxing trials of 
daily life retreat occasionally for a few moments of 
quiet worship, how clarified the spiritual vision would 
be in coming back to their work ! In no place is the 
power of self-concentration more keenly needed than 
in seeking to maintain the atmosphere of the spirit 
while dealing with the things of the flesh. 

GOD KNOWS AND CARES. 

God's care over the small and humble things of life 
is brought out very comfortingly in these sweet lines : 

Men send their ships, the eager things, 

To try their luck at sea ; 
But uone can tell by note or count 

How many there may be. 
One turneth east, another south, 

They never come again ; 
And then we know they must have sunk, 

But neither how nor when. 

God sends his happy birds abroad ; 

"They're less than ships," say we ; 
No moment passes but he knows 

How many there should be. 
One buildeth high, another low, 

With just a bird's light care; 
If only one, perchance, doth fall, 

God knoweth when and where. 



ONLY A DAY'S MARCH INTO TIME. 379 



CITY BEEHIVES. 

There is a beehive perched upon a broad window-sill 
high above a city square, not far from Independence 
Hall in Philadelphia. The bees regard the square 
just across the way from their window as their private 
park, a happy hunting-ground planted in their inter- 
est. In early spring there are the heavy-laden blos- 
soms of the trees, horse-chestnut flowers and the 
like, brimming with honey, pollen, and other good 
things. Some of the ornamental shrubs and trees 
blossom well into the summer. Then there are the 
flower-beds. Hyacinth follows crocus, and chrysan- 
themum follows rose. And until the cold winds of 
fall close down the bees' industry altogether, there is 
always some delicious trifle, some cool, deep cup, from 
which to sip honey. A city church ought to be like 
that. The heart of the town where the most people 
are ought to be well furnished with hives of Christian 
workers who see in every man and woman, in every 
boy and girl, the honey of the immortal life for which 
they are seeking in the name of Jesus Christ. Some 
very dilapidated human blossoms have rich honey at 
the heart that rewards the patient and persevering 
worker. 

ONLY A DAY'S MARCH INTO TIME. 

If we take care of the pennies, the dollars will be 
all right. Many people get discouraged because they 
take too long views, covering too many difficulties of 
life at a time. God mercifully gives us only one day 



380 



POETRY AND MORALS. 



at a time for toil and struggle. If we look well after 
the days, the year's record will be all right. Maud 
Eussell writes some very helpful little verses illumi- 
nating this thought : 

Are you watching for the Master 

Day by day ? 
As each golden morn is breaking 
Does the thought your spirit cheer — 
Maybe e'er the day is over 

He'll appear ? 

Are you walking with your Master 

Day by day ? 
Simply walking on with Jesus, 
Trusting him for one step more ; 
Thankful that he veils the future 

Yet in store ? 

A FAR-SIGHTED TELESCOPE, 

When the idea was first mooted, more than a year 
ago, of constructing a telescope powerful enough to 
allow the moon to be viewed from what would seem 
to be close at hand, no little amusement was caused 
in Paris. However, it is now announced that the 
scheme is to be largely realized. The image of the 
moon on which the visitors to the Exposition will be 
able to gaze will appear to be distant only about sixty 
miles. The telescope which is to attain this result, 
which will far outstrip all that has been previously 
achieved, is in course of construction. By its aid it 
will be possible to take photographs of the surface of 
the moon on a scale ten thousand times larger than 
any heretofore obtained. The telescope of faith, 



A FAB-SIGHTED TELESCOPE. 381 



however, is far more magnificent than that. By it 
Abraham caught sight of a city which hath founda- 
tions, whose builder and maker is God. And multi- 
tudes there are to-day who, like him, are happy and 
content, tho pilgrims, because through the lens of 
faith they behold with joy their certain reward. 



TOPICAL INDEX 



PAGE 

Aberdeen, Earl of, Story of . . . 235 
Aboville, Baron d', Steel Shoul- 
der of 304 

Abundant Resources 375, 376 

Achievement, Longing the 

Stepping-stone to 324, 325 

Action, Rest in 207 

Add Up the Blessings 357 

Adder, The Drink 59, 60 

Affliction, Consolation in, 158, 

164, 165 

"Afterward of Sorrow, The," 
poem by P. Morrison, quoted 

266, 267 

Age of Light, The 247, 248 

Christian Old 37 

Aged Christian's Vantage- 
ground, An 233 

Ages, The Rock of 363 

Agnosticism, Barrenness of . . . 229 

Alert Eye, Value of 279 

All in All 184 

Alliances, Secret 331 

All-seeing Christ, The 67 

"Altered Motto, The," T. Mo- 
nod's poem, quoted 125 

Alway, George, quotation 

from 221 

Ambition of a Human Animal, 

The 185, 186 

Anchor, A Sure 292 

"Ancient Mariner, 11 Cole- 
ridge's, quoted 67 

Angel of Light, S tan Some- 
times 93 

on the Stone, The 164, 165 

Angelic Messengers 171 

Angels, God's, Disguises of 168 

Annoyancesof Wealth, The, 11, 12 

Anxiety Contagious 234 

Apaches and the Paymaster's 

Safe 299, 300 

Apologue of Standing Armies, 

An . 119 

Appearances Deceptive 192, 193 

Appreciating Values 159, 160 

Appreciation, Wealth in... 262, 263 
Arbutus, The Heavenly, a Sug- 
gestion of Resurrection Life, 146 



PAGE 

Archers , A Mark for the ... . 72, 73 
Armies, An Apologue of Stand- 
ing 119 

Army of Peace, The 372 

Arnold, Matthew, quotations 

from 75, 245 

Arrows of Evil, The Flying. . . 73 

Artesian Well in Dakota 356 

Associations. Dangerous 196 

Power of Early 239 

At Life's Wheel 43, 44 

At Our Best 101 

"At the Door," poem by Eu- 
gene Field, quoted 297 

At the End of his Rope 8, 9 

Atmosphere of Life, The Im- 
portance of the 284 

Spiritual 20, 21 

The Worldly 100 

Attraction, The Heavenly, 314-316 

of Love, The 201 

Augmenters of Spiritual Em- 
pire 243 

Austin, Annie M., quotation 

from 149, 150 

Autumn Pictures 14, 15 

"Autumn, To," quotation 

from Keats 's 14, 15 

Average Man, The 109 

Awards, Righteous 59 

Azeglio, Massimo d' 63 

Baby, Characteristics of a 184 

Bacon, Rev. H. D., quotation 

from 317 

Bacteria of Rum 120 

Barr, Amelia, quotations 

from 158, 242 

Barriers, Artificial, Breaking 

Down 230 

Beard, Helen, quotation from, 188 

Bearing Up under Trials 60 

Bears and the Maple Sap 76 

Beauty its Own Excuse 136 

Beaver-dams. Missionaries and 95 

Bedtime, Life's 359 

Beehives, City 379 

Beggar, A Proud 50, 51 

Rich, but a 290 



Poetry and Morals 



PAGE 

Beggars Spirit, The 290 

" Behold, I stand at the door 

and knock," Commentary on 111 
Being in Ourselves What We 

Desire in Others.. 365 

Beira, East Africa, " A City of 

Zinc. 11 165 

Bertand, Mr.,and.his Son, Story 

of 96, 97 

Best "Wine Last, The 189 

Better to Us than We De- 
serve ..41, 42 

Beware of Little Sins 93, 94 

Bible for Students of English, 

The 319, 320 

Given to One Perplexed. . . 107 

in the Home, The 115 

Li Hung Chang and the. . . 105 

The Power of the 106 

Bigelow, Lettie, quotation 

from 144 

Birds, Training, to Sing 167 

Blake, William, quotation 

from 347 

Blessing, Duty and 18, 19 

Fear and 156 

of Friends, The 294 

Blessings, Add up the 357 

of Sorrow The 266, 267 

of Unselfishness, The 94 

Thanksgiving for Spiritual, 122 

Blind, Eyes to the 62 

Blinding Power of Sin, The. ... 116 

the Eyes of the Soul 116 

Blood, Poisoning the 349 

Blood-poisoning 148, 149 

Blue, Lieut. Victor 329 

Boers, Treachery of 219 

Bog in Dutchess Co., N. Y. . . . 363 
Bohlvns, Jan von, quotation 

from 326 

Bolton, Sarah K., quotations 

from 64, 185 

Bonar, hymn writer, quota- 
tion from. . . 72 

Books, Dangers Lurking in 

Many Modern 174 

The Restf ulness of Great, 35, 36 

Use of 203 

Bookworms 173, 174 

Borrowing Trouble 109, 110 

Bradt, Edith, quotation from, 193 
Bragdon, Prof. A. A., quota 

tion from 243, 244 

Brahman's Test, The 130 

Brave Boyhood 133, 134 

Bread. Christ the Living 32 

Found in Tomb of Mentu- 
hopet 31, 32 



PAGE 

"Bread of Life, The, 1 ' poem 

by J. S. Browning, quoted. ... 248 

Breaking Down Barriers 230 

Brewer, William, on Saloons.. 351 
"Bright is the Ring of Words," 

R. L. Stevenson's poem, 

quoted 186 

Bring your Flowers Now. .374, 375 
Bronson, Clara W., quotation 

from 101 

Brooklyn, The Cruiser 109 

Broom-corn, Introduction of, 

into United States 279 

Brotherhood, Power of. . . .127, 128 

Transforming Charity 141 

Browning, E. B., quotations 

from.... 86, 140, 319, 321, 362 
John S. , quotation from.. 248 
Robert, quotations from, 

12, 55, 74, 85, 261 
Brutality the Same in Rich and 

Poor 48, 49 

Buckham, James, quotation 

from 285 

Buffing-wheel, The 78, 79 

Built on the Sand 251, 252 

Bullfinch, Queen Catharine and 

the 212, 213 

Burr, Aaron, Story of 206 

Business Men, Oppression of, 325 

Butler. Lady, the Artist 182 

Butterflies, The Swarm of, 142, 143 
Byron, Lord, quotation from, 78 

Caches, Wayside 87, 88 

Call for Earnestness, A 261 

of God, The 27 

Campbell, Wilford, quotation 

from 153 

Canaries, the Diplomat and 

the 89, 90 

Canton, William, quotation 

from 164 

"Canute," poem by Words- 
worth, quoted 167 

Care, God's, Over Humble 

Things of Life 378 

Career, The Longing for a 

Wider 348, 349 

Carelessness, Evils of 236, 237 

Carmen, Bliss, quotation from, 341 

Carpenter, Christ, The 174 

Carranza, Lieut., Spanish Na- 
val Attache 333 

Carrier-pigeons in China 92 

Cars, Brooklyn Trolley 138 

Cary, Alice, quotation from . . 107 
Catharine.Queen, Story of, 212, 213 
Cause, Value of a Just 217 



Topical Index 



385 



PAGE 

Cayo Romano, Salt Industry 

of 61 

Cervera's Fleet, Destruction of, 109 
Chaillu, Paul du, the Traveler, 183 

Changing Song, The 369 

Character and Life, Relation 

between 85 

Blemishes of 268 

Easily Destroyed 237, 238 

in Service, Christian 82 

Insidious Transformation 

of 55 

Positive 18 

Priceless Jewels of, Lost 

293, 294 

Sweating 129 

Tattooing of . 40 

that Counts 5 

The Growth of 104 

The Impregnable 299, 300 

turned Black 54, 55 

Charity, Brotherhood Trans- 
forming 141 

Reason for 191, 192 

Cheerfulness, Memory and 114 

Perseverance and 101, 102 

Sin the Assassin of 117 

Cheesebro, Story of the Con- 
vict 110 

Cheney, John Vance, quota- 
tion from 252 

Children, Cruelty to Factory, 362 

God's Care for 205, 206 

The Mother's Hour with. . 274 
The Weeping 362, 363 

"Child's Thought of God, A,' 1 
poem by Mrs. Browning, 
quoted 319 

Choosing Darkness 70, 71 

Christ and Failure 175, 176 

Advantages of following, 272 

at the Door 195, 196 

Brings Men Close to God . . 235 
Indorsing our Brother's 

Claim 136, 137 

Loves You 278, 279 

More than a Friend 110 

our Faithful Shepherd.... 354 
Our Fellowship with... 187, 188 

our Refuge 260 

Out of Touch with 217 

Soldiers of 217, 218 

The All-seeing 87 

The Carpenter 174 

the Great Discoverer 65 

the Ideal Physician 260 

the Living Bread 32 

The Risen 290 

The Seeking 360. 361 

25 



PAGE 

Christ, the Way He Treats Us. 136 

Christian, an Ideal for the 20 

Church, Influence of 95 

Confidence 117 

Courage 365, 366 

Graces, The 180, 344, 345 

Knighthood 255 

Life 14 

Life, Training for 167 

Old Age 37 

Song, Power of 121 

Worker, Comfort for the, 

69, 70 

Christianity, a Hopeful. . .214, 215 
Barriers between Nations 

broken by 231 

Evidences of 222, 223 

Goes to the Root 63 

Hero-worship in 125, 126 

Ideal of 63 

Produces a Moral Atmos- 
phere 285 

Saves by Inner Transfor- 
mation 63 

the Glory of 65 

Christians Confidence, The. . . 117 

Guide-Book, The 107 

Vantage ground, An Aged, 233 

Christmas and Duty 145 

The Spirit of 161 

Christ's Carpenter Bench, 

Timber on 373 

Coming Reign, How to 

Hasten 258, 259 

Coming Victory 254 

Fellowship 103 

Love for Us 278 

Presence 119, 120, 290 

Sacrifice for Us 210 

Sacrifice, Greatness of 110 

Church, a City, What It Ought 

to Be 379 

Christian, Influence of 95 

Formality a Stumbling- 
block in the 165, 166 

Power of a United 84 

The Worldly 241 

What it Should Stand for, 347 
Churches.Some Like Croakers, 116 
Some Need Closer Connec- 
tion with Christ 205 

City Beehives 379 

Claim of the Poorest Indorsed 

by Christ 137 

Cleansing Power 286 

Clear Creek Mine. Utah 265 

Cleveland, President, Story 

of 136, 137 

Climbing, Moral 74 



386 Poetry and Morals 



PAGE 

Clocks, Phonographic 162 

Closet, The Skeleton in the . . . 28 

Club, The Poor Man's 351 

Cobra and the Pigeon 249 

Cocke, Zitella, quotation from, 172 

Coin, A Universal 261 

Coleridge, quotations from, 

54, 67, 264 

Color-blindness, Moral 178 

Coltman, Dr. and Li Hung 

Chang 105 

Column, The Thanksgiving, 288,289 
Comfort for the Christian 

Worker 69 

"Coming of Joy, The" poem 

by W. Woods, quoted 218 

Command, The Power of 250 

Common Work Glorified 113 

Commonplace Heroes 265 

"Commonplace Letter, A." 

M. Sangster's poem, quoted 180 
Communication between God 

and the Heart 68 

"Compensation, 1 ' Emerson's 

poem 59 

Compensation, Law of 11 

"Complaint," Coleridge's 

poem 54 

Compromises with Evil 61 

Concentration, Power of. .377, 378 
Cone.Helen G., quotation from 203 
Confidence, The Christian's. . . 117 

Confounded Counsels Ill, 112 

Conquering Temptation 55, 56 

Conscience, a Tell-tale 206 

God's Searchlight on a 

Man's 112 

Conscious Immortality 306 

Consolation in Affliction . .158, 

164, 165 

Contrasts of Life 376 

Conversion, A Quiet 147, 148 

Fruits of 103, 104 

The Soul's 182,183 

Cook, Charles E., quotation 

from 303 

Cooperation in the Home, 107, 108 

Necessity of 334. 335 

Corrupt Use of Wealth 82, 83 

Counsels, Confounded. ...Ill, 112 

Courage. Christian 365, 366 

Moral 194, 195 

Wins Respect 56, 57 

Cowardice, Victory Over 155 

Cowper, quotations from, 264, 286 

Cradle, The Empty 279, 280 

Creed, The Living 235 

Croakers, Some Churches like 

115, 116 



PAGE 

Crosby, Fanny, quotation 

from 155 

Crown of Thorns, The. . . . 276, 277 

Culture, Musical 29 

The Effect of 52 

True 96 

Curse, The Great 247 

Curtis, Gertrude, quotation 

from 211 

Curzon, Lady, Story of 172 

Danger of World! iness, The, 114, 115 

Darkness, Choosing 70, 71 

Daumesnil, General 294 

Day, Ex-Secretary, Story of. . 175 

Day of Recognition, The 298 

Death, Faith in the Presence 

of 286, 287 

The Freedom of 322, 323 

The Music of 9, 10 

Transient: Life Lasting, 

328, 329 

"Death in the Desert, A," of 

Browning, quoted. . 74 

Death-Gulch, Sin's 270 

Deception in Appearances,192, 193 

Deed, Charm of a Good 20, 21 

Deeds of Kindness, Little. .180, 181 

Training for Great 340, 341 

Deep that Coucheth Beneath, 

The 356, 357 

Deeper Voice, The — 39 

Defenders of a Bad Cause, The 

Medley of 21, 22 

Delusion of To-morrow, The. . Ill 
Dependence upon the Pres- 
ence of God 353 

Depew, Senator, Story of 124 

Deserving, Reward of 42 

Destroyed by Contemptible 

Enemies 237 

Detecting False Jewels 139 

Detective, The Infallible. ..308, 309 
Devereux, Mary, quotation 

from 114 

Devil, A Charming 93 

Sugar-coating the 61 

Devil's Pot-hunters, Mankind 

Easy Prey of 311 

Dewey, Admiral, Loving-Cup 

of 267, 268 

Diamond, Jeweler and the. ... 5 
Dickinson, Mary Lowe, quota- 
tion from 336 

Diederich, Lida, quotation 

from 338 

Difference, The 271 

Difficulties of Life, Overcom- 
ing 379, 380 



Topical Index 387 



PAGE 

Discipline, Necessity of 16 

Self, What is Gained by It. 118 

Discontent 271 

Divine 354, 355 

Discouragements of Life, Over- 
coming ^. 102 

Disease, man's Struggle 

Against 2 

Disguises of God's Angels 168 

Display, Love of 27 

Dissipation, Habits of, Like a 

Treacherous Bog 363 

Dives and Lazarus, Difference 

between 233 

Divine Discontent 354, 355 

Fellowship of Christ 68 

Divinity of Christ 35 

Do It To-day 162, 163 

Doane, Bishop, quotation 

from 134 

Doing our Best 238 

Domestic Sorrow, A Prolific 

Cause of 89, 90 

Domination of Corrupt Ma- 
chine 22 

Door, a King at the 150, 151 

Christ Knocking at the, 195, 196 

Doubts Vanished ... 79 

Doudney, Sarah, quotation 

from 258 

Douglass, Frederick 208 

Downhill, Easy to Go 348 

Dreaming: of Home 151, 152 

Drifting Hulks 355, 356 

Drink Adder, The 59, 60 

Drowned in Sweets 76 

Drum with a Remarkable His- 
tory 71, 72 

Drunkard, Anecdote of, in New 

Orleans 7, 8 

Drunkenness, Cruel Bondage 

of 358 

Dunbar, P. L. , quotation from, 62 
Dutchess County, N. Y., Great 

Bog in 363 

Duty and Blessing 18, 19 

Christmas and 145 

The Glory of 215 

The Protection of 92 

"Duty, To," poem by T. W. 

Higginson, quoted 215 

"Duty's Path," E. W. Wil- 
cox's poem, quoted 189, 190 

Eagle and Boy, Fight between, 

133, 134 

Eagles at Merry-Meeting Bay, 

Maine 325 

Earnestness, A Call for 261 



PAGE 

Earnestness, Need of 213, 214 

Earth's Changing Scenes.. 339, 340 

Easter, A Song of 166, 167 

"Easter Dawn," W. Canton's 

poem, quoted 164 

Easter Day 177, 178 

Lilies 158, 159 

The Growth of 3u9 

Easy to Go Downhill 348 

Effect of Culture, The 52 

Electric-light on Trees, Effect 

of 114, 115 

Electricity in the Hives . . .204, 205 

Electroid, The Divine 305 

Elijah's Weak Spot 77, 78 

Elixir of Life, The 2, 123 

Elizabeth, Empress, Story of. 135 
Elliott, Charlotte, quotation 

from 120 

Emerson, quotations from, 
1, 9, 20, 21, 28, 37, 59, 71, 96, 

109, 120, 136,143, 227 

Emotion, Waste of 277 

Empire, Augmenters of Spiri- 
tual 243 

Empress of Germany,Story of, 360 
Endurance, Milton a Spectacle 

of 60 

"Enduring, The," S. K. Bol- 
ton's poem, quoted 185 

"Endymion," quotation from 

Keats' s 4 

Enemies, Destroyed by Con- 
temptible 23? 

Energy, United. . . > 84 

Enterprise 143 

Environment, Effects of.. 191, 192 
"Environments," E. Perkins's 

poem, quoted 191 

Eternal Love 307, 308 

Every Man in his Place. . . .271, 272 
Evidences of Christianity. .222, 223 

Evil, Compromises with 61 

Creation of 119 

Imaginations 160 

in Human Society, To Kill 

Off 288 

Speaking 33 

The Flying Arrows of 73 

Thoughts,The Power of, 172,173 

Excuses, Wicked 106 

Experience of Life, A Song 

for Every 369, 370 

Expression of Gratitude, The, 123 

Eye, The Alert 279 

Eyes, Hardening the Heart 

Blinds the 131 

of the Soul, Sin Blinding. . 116 
to the Blind 62 



388 Poetry and Morals 



PAGE 

Faber, quotation from 65 

Faces Watching for Us, The, 

199, 200 

Facing the Specters of the 

Mind 68 

Failure and Success 281 

Christ and ,.175, 176 

Seeming 85 

Faith, Holding onto 367, 368 

The Lens of 231 

" Faith in God," poem by Dr, 

Mackenzie, quoted 286 

Faithful Shepherd, Christ our. 354 

Falconry, the Sport 58 

Falcons, Human 58, 59 

Falling Face Downward 77 

False Colors, Sailing Under, 306,307 

Jewels, Detecting 139 

Family Religion 374 

Farningham, Mrs., quotations 
from, 197, 255, 262, 278, 288, 

328, 344, 360, 371 

Fascination of Sin, The 249 

Fashion, The Treadmill of, 207, 208 
Fault-finding with Providence, 364 

Fear and Blessing ' 156 

Fellowship, Divine, of Christ, 

68, 221 

with Christ, Our.. 103, 187, 188 

with Jesus 169 

Fidelity in Need 22, 23 

Field, Eugene, quotations 

from 151, 152, 239, 297 

Fields, J. T., his Fireside 

Hymn quoted 108 

Fighting Against Poverty 175 

Finding a Friend 368 

Fault with Providence.... 364 

God through Man. 91 

the Lost 96, 97 

Fireside Worship 108 

Flabbiness in Manhood 250 

Flattery, Folly of 176, 177 

Flavor of Life, The 228, 229 

Fletcher, Lucy, quotation 

from 207 

Fog-dispeller, A 98, 99 

Following Christ, Advantages 

of 272 

Folly, Malice and 26, 27 

of Flattery 176, 177 

Food, Stale 31, 32 

Varieties of 52 

Forbearance, God's 371, 372 

Forgiveness, Riches of, Of- 
fered by Christ 187 

Forks of the Road, The 225 

Formality, a Stumbling-block 
in the Church 165, 166 



PAGE 

Fort St. Philip, Cavite, Pris- 
ons at 358 

Foundations, Sure 84 

Fountain, A Cleansing 286 

Foster, Bishop R. S., on Meth- 
odists , 209 

Fragments, Save the 336, 337 

Franklin, Benjamin, Intro- 
duced Broom-corn into 

United States 279 

Heber, Heroism of 265 

Freaks of Nature in Arizona, 

251, 252 

Freedom and Right 28 

Healing Power of 245 

of Death, The 322, 323 

of the Soul 99 

Freeing Power of a Great 
Purpose - 37, 38 

Fresh Impulse 295 

Friend, Christ More than a. . . 110 

Finding a , 368 

I Had a 335 

Value of a 335 

Friendly Hand Value of a, 

219, 220 

Friends, Dangers of Evil- 
minded...., 197 

The Blessing of 294 

Friendship, Blessedness of — 368 

Real 18 

Friendships, Earth's, Transi- 

torinessof 340 

Fritz, the Merchant's Son . . .46, 47 
Frothingham, N quotation 

from 115 

Frown. Smiles and 97 

Fruit in Old Age 312 

Fruits of Conversion 103, 304 

Funston, General, Story of. 192, 193 
Furness, Dr. W. H. quotation 

from 306 

Galicia, Wild Man of 370 

Gannett, Dr., quotations from, 

104, 342 

Garland, Betty, quotation from 157 
"Gate at the Head of the 
Stair, The," poem, quoted, 

199, 200 

Geese, Wild, at Topeka 311 

Gems, Appropriate, for Per- 
sons to Wear 346 

Lost 293 

Getting the Most Out of Life, 

292, 293 

Gilbert, Helen,quotation from, 323 
Gilder, Richard Watson, quo- 
tations from 281, 290 



Topical Index 389 



PAGE 

Gladstone, Mr., and the Poor 

Shoemaker 80, 81 

Story of 362 

Glory of Common Things,The, 270 

of Duty, The 215 

of Unselfishness, The 125 

Glowing Souls 29, 30 

God, A Man of 112 

All in All to the Sincere 

Christian 184 

Faith in 286, 287 

Finding, through Man 91 

Gives Us a New Chance. . 51 

Goodness of 51 

Knows and Cares 378 

Our Dependence upon the 

Presence of 353 

our Father 297 

our Only Hope 65 

Perfect Peace in Submis- 
sion to Will of 31 

Perfect Trust in 301 

Promise of, to Lost Sinners, 9 
Serving, in Little Things . . 83 

Thanksgiving to 334 

The Call of 27 

The Gold 257. 258 

The Motherhood of 319 

God's Angels 168 

Care for Little Things .... 57 
Care Over Humble Things 

of Life , 378 

Forbearance 371, 372 

Justice 54 

Love for the Humble 57 

Power 342 

Providence 193, 194 

Smiling Face in Nature. 49, 50 
Unbroken Reign 205, 206 

Goethe, quotation from 16 

Gold. Anecdote of Miner and 

Nugget of 41, 42 

God, The 257, 258 

in a Honey- tree 91 

Lost 290, 291 

More Costly than 73, 74 

New-minted 341 

The King's 337 

Unexpected Human 142 

Good Name, A 4 

Shepherd, Jesus's picture 
of the 360 

Goodness in the World, Rising 

Tide of 312 

of God 51 

Saving Salt of 61 

Gossipers and Scandal-mon- 
gers 33 

Gould, Jay 200, 201 



PAGE 

Grace, Temptations Overcome) 

by God's 55 

Graces, The Christian, 180, 344. 345 
Gratitude, The Expression of, 123 
The Personal. We Owe the 

Savior 330 

Greatness, Acknowledging 
Mistakes an Element of True, 269 

Greed, Love of 27 

Spirit of 16 

Greedy Spirit, A 15, 16 

Greenhalge, Gov. F. T., quo- 
tation from 304 

Growing Old Poetically 340 

Growth and Rest 197, 198 

Mushroom, Never Desir- 
able 36, 37 

of Character, The 104 

of Easter, The 309 

of Human Rights, The. ... 132 
Guerrilla Warfare of the 

Tongue, The 172 

Guide Book, The Christian's. . 107 
Guinevere, Tennyson's Queen, 3 

Gutta-percha, Scarcity of 375 

Guyon, Madame, quotation 
from 99 

"Habeas Corpus," quotation 
from H. H. Jackson's 

poem 23, 24 

Hale, Edward E.. quotation 

from 350 

Hand of Jesus, The 154, 174 

The Friendly 219, 220 

Happiness, Elusiveness of 218 

of the World, to What It 

is Due 180. 181 

Trials Intensify 203 

Hardening the Heart Blinds 

the Eyes 131 

Harrison, Frederic, on the 

Bible.... 319, 320 

Hastings, Lady Flora, Story 

of 24 25 

He Died for Me , 210 

Headlights, Electric Double- 
ray 247 

Healing Power of Freedom, 

The 245 

Health, Sobriety and .... 188. 189 
Heart, Communication be- 
tween God and the Hu- 
man 68 

Hardening the, Blinds the 

Eyes 131 

Hollow at the 45, 46 

Priceless Fruit of the 
Youthful Human 228 



390 Poetry and Morals 



PAGE 

Heart, The Happiest 252, 253 

Transforming the 97 

Hearts, Transforming Sinful, 35 

Heaven, A Taste of 245, 246 

Drawing Nearer 291 

Humannessof 1 

Heavenly Attraction, The, 314-316 

Heaven's Work 23, 24 

Heavens, The Opened, Tenny- 
son's picture of 268, 269 

Helpfulness of Little Things, 

The 88, 89 

Helping Ourselves by Helping 

Others 356 

the Weak 317, 318 

Herbert, George, quotation 

from 123 

Hermes Trismegitus 2 

Hero-worship in Christianity, 

125, 126 

Heroes, Commonplace 265 

The Quiet 329 

Unknown.... 221, 222 

Heroic Temper, The 157, 158 

Heroism 71 

Herons, Croaking of 116 

Hewing Rough Stone 133 

Hidden Life, The 342 

Higginson. E., quotation from, 51 
T. W., quotation from.... 215 
" His Hand was Rough," A. 
MacMechan's poem, quoted, 174 

Hobson, Lieutenant 329 

Hodges, E. F., quotation from, 374 

Holding on to Faith 367, 368 

Hollow at the Heart 45, 46 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, quo- 
tations from 233, 359 

Home, Dreaming of 151, 152 

Home-life, The Give and Take 

of 107 

Woman's Side of the 101 

Home Spirit, The 163, 164 

The Bible in the 115 

What It Is for 108 

Homesickness 170, 171 

Homing-Pigeon, The 20 

Honest Money 75 

Honesty and Truth Universal 

Coin 261 

Honey of Life, The 39, 40 

Honey -tree. Gold in a 91 

Honor, Queer Ideas of 333 

"Honors," poem by George 

Alway, quoted ... 221 

Hope a Divine Electroid, 305, 306 
Gloriousness of the Chris- 
tian's 155 

God our Only 65 



PAGE 

Hope, The Christian's 215, 229 

The Religion of 3 

How to Awaken Nobility in 

Others 346 

to Enjoy Religion 183 

to Hasten Christ's Coming 

Reign 258, 259 

Howard, H. H., quotation 

from 293 

Howe, Julia Ward 298 

Howells, W. D., quotation 

from 313 

Hulks, Drifting 355, 356 

Human Falcons 58, 59 

Gold 142 

Life, Shortness of 3 

Rights, Growth of 132 

Humanity, When at its Best, 101 
Working for Service of.... 152 

Humanness of Heaven 1 

Humble, God's Love for the . . . 57 

Humility 33, 34 

Hunter, Story of African . .26, 27 
Husbanding One's Resources, 343 
Huxley, Prof., Lines on Grave 

of 229 

Hyacinths in Florida Rivers.. 331 

I Had a Friend 335 

Ibrahim Pasha Fauzi 147 

Ideal Physician, The 259, 260 

Ideas, Queer, of Honor .... 333 

Idleness, Heaven Not 23 

Idol, Testing the ..130 

"If," A Soul-paralyzing 229 

"If Christ Should Come To^ 

day," H. Beard's poem, 

quoted 188 

" If We Had but a Day," poem 

by M. L. Dickinson, quoted, 336 
"I'll Do What I Can " poem 

by E. W. Wilcox, quoted.... 238 
Imagination may Become an 
Instrument of Punish- 
ment 160 

The Power of 201, 202 

Imaginations. Evil 160 

Immortality, Conscious 306 

Song of 166, 167 

Importance of Time, The. . 72 

Impulse, Fresh 295 

Incarnate Love 67 

India, Gold Lost in 290 

Indian Mutiny, Story of the. 37, 38 
Individuality, Importance of a 

Man's 272 

Infallible Detective 308, 309 

Influence, Power of Personal, 

263, 264 



Topical Index 



39 1 



PAGE 

Inheritance, Man's Common. . 92 

Inhumanity, Man's 283 

Injustice, Man's 283, 284 

Inspiration to Toil 256 

Inspiring One Another 366, 367 

Intelligence, Respecting Our, 

220, 221 

Invincible Love 120 

Irrigation in California. . . .277, 278 

Jackson, H. H., quotations 

from 23, 34, 43, 295, 296 

Jameson Raid, Story of . . . . 219 
Jefferson, Thomas, Violin of . . 64 
Jelly, The Volunteer and the, 

163, 164 

Jesus, Coming of 258 

Fellowship with 169 

The Hand of 154 

See also under " Christ." 

Jewel, A Priceless 346 

Jewels of Character Lost, 293, 294 

Detecting False 139 

Johnston, Robert, Negro Mis- 
sionary 127, 128 

"Joseph's Bench, At." poem 
by G-. Macdonald, quoted ... 373 

Joy and Service 218 

Jun Rey,Chief of the Cherokees 216 

Justice, God's 54 

Love and 40 

Keats, quotations from,4, 14, 30, 46 
Keniston, Clara, quotation 

from 225 

Keynote of Life, The 86, 87 

Kilauea, Volcano 81, 82 

Kimberley Diamond Districts, 131 
Kindness, Little Deeds of. .180, 181 

of the Living 280, 281 

King at the Door, A 50, 151 

King's Gold, The 337 

Kiser, S. E., quotation from... 208 

Knighthood, Christian 255 

" Knocking, Ever Knocking," 

H. B. Stowe'spoem, quoted, 195 
Knocking Off the Shackles, 146, 147 
Knowlton, C. M., quotation 

from 239 

Labor Not Regarded as the 

Work of Man 313 

The Music of 296 

"Lakeside, The," Whittier's 

poem 49 

Lame Take the Prey 138 

"Land-Locked." poem by C. 

Thaxter. quoted 348 

Lanterns, American 168 



PAGE 

Larcom,Lucy, quotations from, 

112, 232, 320 

Largeness of Mind 124 

"Last Prayer," H. H. Jack- 
son's, quoted 34 

"Last Walk in Autumn, The," 

of Whittier, quoted 70 

Law and Freedom 16 

of Compensation 11 

of Progress, The 242 

Lazarus and Dives, Difference 

between 233 

Le Conte Pear, The 52 

Leadership, Moral, Secret of. . 57 

Lee, Gen. R. E., Story of 127 

Leeches in the Himalaya 

Valleys 234 

Legality, Love or 46, 47 

" Legend Beautiful, The," quo- 
tation from 18 

Lens of Faith, The 231 

Leonard, Priscilla, quotation 

from 376 

Lesson of Resignation, The, 332. 333 

Life a Buffing- wheel 78, 79 

A Song for Every Experi- 
ence of 369, 370 

A Useful 299 

Abundant, How Obtained, 293 

Contrasts in . , . 376 

Human, Divine Qualities in, 19 
Lasting ; Death Transient, 328 
Light and Dark Sides of . . 62 

of Trust, A 211, 212 

Opportunities of 109 

Philosophy of 38 

Relation between Charac- 
ter and 85 

Resurrection, the Arbu- 
tus a Suggestion of 146 

The Elixir of 2, 123 

The Flavor of 228, 229 

The Hidden 342 

The Honey of 39, 40 

The Importance of the At- 
mosphere of 284 

The Keynote of 86, 87 

The Music of 203 

The Struggle of 6, 7 

The Value of a Definite 

Purpose in 273 

The Wastage of 282 

Trials of, The Afterward 

of, Full of Peace 310 

Life ship on Fire 53 

Life's Bedtime 359 

Wheel, At 43, 44 

" Light of the World," picture 
called 195 



392 Poetry and Morals 



PAGE 

Light, The Age of 247, 248 

the Best Policeman 133 

We Shed, The 168, 169 

Li Hung (Jhang and the Bible, 105 

Like a Palm-tree 309, 310 

Lilies, Easter 158, 159 

Limitations of Money, The, 364, 365 

of Wealth, The 6 

Lions, Our Slain 216 

Taming 118 

" .Listening Heart of The 
World, The," poem by L. 

Diederich, quoted 338 

Little Things, Service to God 

in 83 

Lives, Wind-blown 311 

Living Rest, A 128 

Lock step of Sin, The 190, 191 

Longfellow, H. W. , quotations 

from.... 18, 35, 36, 79, 111,206 
Samuel, quotation from.. 307 
Longing for a Wider Career, 

348, 349 
the Stepping-stone to 

Achievement 324, 325 

Looking on Both Sides 63, 64 

Lord's Torches, The 53 

Lost, Finding the 96, 97 

Gems 293 

Gold 290, 291 

in the Sand 140, 141 

Love and Justice 40 

A Sister's 42 

and Trust 307, 308 

for Us, Christ's 278 

Incarnate 67 

Invincible 120 

Lesser Ministries of 285 

Meets Our Human Wants, 153 

or Legality 46, 47 

Power of 232 

Power of, to Surmount 

Difficulties 120 

Renewing Youth 9 

The Attraction of 201 

The Spur of 209 

Loved Ones, Reunion with — 12 

Love's Willing Service 321, 322 

Loving Cup, The Best 267, 268 

Lowell, J. R., quotations from, 
57, 91, 141, 161, 168, 250, 297, 

324, 341, 346 
Lust Yielded to Grows into a 
Habit 51, 54 

Macdonald, George, quotations 
from 128, 373 

MacDonald, Gen. Hector, an- 
ecdote of 56, 57 



PAGE 

Machine, a Money-making, 200, 201 
Domination of Corrupt.. .. 22 
McKenzie, Dr. W. S., quota- 
tion from 286 

MacMechan, Archibald, quota- 
tion from 174 

Make Religion Attractive, 13, 14 

the Most of Youth 257 

Maleo, Bird Called . . 36 

Malice and Folly 26, 27 

Man Behind the Words, The. . 186 
Compared to a Palm tree, 310 

of God, A 112,113 

White, Turned Black. . .54, 55 

The Average 109 

"Man, The, That Did Stand by, " 23 
"Man, The, Who Longed to 
Lead," S. E. Kiser's 

poem, quoted 208 

Man-eaters 32, 33 

Manhood, Development of 

Spiritual 100 

Flabbiness in 250 

Man's Common Inheritance . . 92 

Injustice 2S3, 284 

Sonship to God 74 

Manila, Incident of Battle of, 366 
Margaret of Valois, quotation 

from 260 

Margharita, Anecdote of 

Queen 11, 12 

Margin, The Narrow 161 

Mark for the Archers, A .... 72, 73 
Massey, Gerald, quotations 

from 276, 312 

"Master's Face, The," poem 
by John von Bohlyns, 

quoted 326 

Master's Portrait, The 135 

Matson, William Kidd, quota- 
tion from 182 

Mauna Loa, volcano 81, 82 

Medals, African King and 

his 306, 307 

Medley of Defenders of a Bad 

Cause, The 21, 22 

"Melodies," poem by C. E. 

Cook, quoted 303 

Memories of Mother 157 

Memory and Cheerfulness.... 114 

Memory's Sunken City 25 

Mentuhotep, Bread Found in 

the Tomb of 31, 32 

Merchant and his Son, Story 

of 46, 47 

Mercy, Picture of God's 204 

Pity, Peace, and Love 347 

Reliance on God's, a Source 
of Strength 138 



Topical Index 



393 



PAGE 

Message the World Needs 338 

Messengers, Angelic 171 

Metal Polishers of New York, 78 

Metals, Prices of Rare 74 

Mice and Music 29 

Millerstown, Pa., Most Health- 
ful Town in United States. . . 188 
Millionaire, An Armless and 

Legless 364 

Milton, quotation from 60 

Mind, Largeness of 124 

The Young, to be Studied, 247 
Miner and Nugget of Gold, 

Anecdote of 41, 42 

Ministries, The Lesser 285 

Mirrors and Morals 69 

Misfits 246 

Missionaries and Beaver-dams, 95 
Mistakes, Acknowledging, an 

Element of True Greatness.. 269 
"Mizpah," E. Bradt's poem, 

quoted 193 

Molasses as Food 17 

Monarch Held Captive, A 66 

Money a Curse When Our Mas- 
ter . 201 

Honest 75 

The Limitations of.... 364, 365 
Money getting, Sordidness of, 258 
Monod, T., quotation from — 125 

Montana, Beavers in 95 

Monument, The Most Lasting, 185 
Moore. Thomas, quotations 

from. 6,11,20, 38 

Mope or Hope 376, 377 

Moral Climbing 74 

Color-blindness 178 

Courage 194, 195 

Morality 47 

Morals, Mirrors and 69 

More Costly than Gold 73, 74 

Morris, William, quotation 

from 7 

Morrison, Peter, quotation 

from 266 

Mother. Memories of 157 

Motherhood, The Poets and... 264 

The Song of 303 

of God. The 319 

Mother's Hour, The 274 

Mountain Dwellers 100 

"Mountaineer's Prayer, A". . . 112 
Miiller, Wilhelm. quotations 

from 25. 40. 73, 81. 119, 139 

Mulholland, Rosa, quotation 

from 176 

Music an Inspiration to Labor, 256 

A Skv-born 226, 227 

Mice and 29 



PAGE 

Music of Death. The... 9, 10 

of Labor, The 296 

of Life, The 203 

Power of 127 

Remembered 11 

"My Savior," poem, quoted, 

330, 331 

"My Savior's Hand," K. Pur- 
vis's, quoted 154 

"Myself and I," poem by C. 
M. Knowlton, quoted 239 

Name, A Good , 4 

Nameless Saints 350 

Napier, Sir Charles 155 

Narrow Margin, The 161 

Nasse, Prof., Adventure of... 157 
Nathan's Example in Dealing 

with David 177 

" Nature and Art," quotation 

from Goethe's 16 

Nature, God's Smiling Face in, 

49, 50 

Presence of God in Chan- 
ging Scenes of 49 

Nature's Restfulness 4, 5 

Need, Fidelity in 22, 23 

of Earnestness 213 214 

Nemesis of Sin, The 316, 317 

Nerves, Wasted 30i-303 

Nesting in a Wreck 198, 199 

Never Give Up.... 182 

New Caledonia, Pearl-fields of, 153 

New-minted Gold 341 

New Year, The 204 

Fresh Impulse on Entering:, 

295, 296 

Nobility in Others, How to 

Arouse 346 

Nourishing Sweets 17, 18 

Oasis, The Sunday 304, 305 

Obedience Better than Success, 368 

Old Age, Christian 37 

Omdurman, Dervish Skeletons 

from 28 

"One by One," Fanny Cros- 
by's hymn, quoted 155, 156 

Only a Day's March into Time, 

379, 380 

Opening the Prison Doors 358 

Opportunities of Life 109 

Opportunity. Seizing 80, 81 

The Value of an 254 

Oppression, Success by 325 

Orchard, Protecting the. . .227, 228 

Orchids of the Soul. The 224 

Osier, Address by Dr 259 

Ospreys Nestingina Wreck, 198,199 



394 Poetry and Morals 



PAGE 

Our Slain Lions. . . . 216 

Out of Touch with Christ 217 

Owls in Darkness, Men Like, 70, 71 

Pacific Cable 375 

Palm-tree, Man Like a 309, 310 

Parrot and Chaplain, Story of, 

176, 177 

Partridge, William, quotation 

from 351 

Passing of Time, The „ 162 

Past, The Sacred 25 

Path, The Lost 141 

Paths, Divergent 225 

Patrick, St., Hymn of 184 

Patriot's Prayer, The 367 

Patti, Adelina, Anecdote of, 34, 35 
Pauper, Worker, or Which?... 179 

Pavements, Rich 130, 131 

Peace, The Army of 372 

The Price of 239, 335 

The Sublimest, Where 
Found. 207 

Victories of 72 

Pearl-fields, Spiritual 153, 154 

Pepper, Dr. William, Story of, 377 

Perfect Trust in God 301 

Perkins, Elizabeth, quotation 

from 191 

Permanence of the Unseen, 

The 47, 48 

Perseverance and Cheerful- 
ness 101, 102 

Reward of 253 

Personal Influence, Power of, 263 

Savior, A ..330, 331 

Petition, The Plodder's 323 

Phillips, Philip, Jr., quotation 

from 299 

Physician, The Ideal 259, 260 

Pigeon, The Homing 20 

"Pirate Chief, A, 11 Z. Cocke's 

song, quoted 172, 173 

Plasterer, The Drunken. . .143, 144 
Pleasure, Good and Evil of . . . . 77 
Pleasures, Differences in 189 

Worldly, Transient Char- 
acter of 38 

Plenty of Room at the Top. . . 253 
"Plodder's Petition, The," 

poem by H. Gilbert, 

quoted 323 

Poet Ought to Be, What the . . 91 
Poets. Motherhood and the... 264 

Point of View, The 62. 63 

Poison of Sin, The 349, 350 

Poisoning the Blood 349 

Policeman, Light the Best. . . . 133 
Poorhouse of Sin 187 



PAGE 

Poor Man's Club. The. 351 

Positive Character 18 

Pot-hunters, Mankind Easy 

Prey of Devil's 311 

Poverty, Fighting Against 175 

or Great Riches, Danger of 64 

to Riches From 187 

Power, Freeing, of a Great 

Purpose. . . 37 

of Brotherhood 127, 128 

of Christian Song, The . . 121 

of Command, The 250 

of Early Associations 239 

of Imagination, The. ..201, 202 

of Music 127 

of Personal Influence, 263, 264 

of Self -concentration 377 

of Sin, Blinding 116 

of the Bible, The 106 

Prather, Dr. F. H., quotation 

from 146 

" Prayer, A," poem by P. Phil- 
lips, Jr., quoted 299 

Prayer and Works 208, 209 

The Patriot's 367 

Without Works 73 

Prayer-Meetirg and Saloon 143, 144 
Prejudices, People Morally 

Color-blind through 179 

Preston, Margaret, Story of 

the Brahman by 130 

Price of Peace, The 335 

Priceless Jewel, A 346 

Prison Doors, Opening the... 358 
Procrastination, Evil of... 162, 163 
Prodigal Son, Oriental Legend 

of 8, 9 

Progress, The Law of 242 

Prolific Cause of Domestic 

Sorrow, A 89, 90 

Promise of God to Sinners 9 

"Prospice," quotation from 

Browning's 12, 13 

Protecting the Orchard. . .227, 228 
Protection of Duty, The .... 92 
Providence, Finding Fault with 364 

of God 193, 194 

Pulpit, Mission of the 848 

Purpose in Life, The Value of 

a Definite 37, 38, 273 

Unity of , Power of 84 

Purvis, Katherine, quotation 

from 154 

Python and Wild Pigs, Battle 
Between 84 

Queen and the Parrot, Story 

of 176, 177 

Queer Ideas of Honor 333 



Topical Index 



395 



PAGE 

Railroads in United States, 

Army of Men Employed on 372 
Raiment of the Soul, The, 210, 211 

Ralli, General 117 

Rats in Pennsylvania Mine 327 

Rattlesnake, Inherited Traits 

of 93, 94 

Real Worth 275, 276 

Reason for Charity 191, 192 

Reasons for Singing 351, 352 

Recognition, The Day of ... . 298 
Redbreast, Robin, Legend of, 134 
" Reed, A, 1 ' E. B. Browning's 

poem, quoted 140 

Refuge, Christ Our 260 

Reign, God's Unbroken 205 

Rejected Royalty 235, 236 

Relation between Character 

and Life 85 

Relative Value of Things 232 

Religion, Family 374 

How to Enjoy 183 

of Hope, The 3 

Religious Life, A Positive, 287, 288 

Remembered Music 11 

Remembrance, A Beautiful, 

212, 213 

A Sweet, Possible for All. . 213 
" Reproof," Coleridge's poem, 54 

Reputation, A Good 4 

Reservoir, Every Church a 96 

Resignation, The Lesson of 332, 333 

Resources. Abundant 375, 376 

Respect, Courage Wins 56, 57 

Respecting Our Intelligence, 

220, 221 

Rest, A Living 128 

" Rest A While,' 1 Mrs. Farning- 

hara's poem, quoted ... 197 

Rest, Growth and 197, 198 

in Action 207 

Restfulness of Great Books, 

The 35, 36 

of the Sea, The 30 

Resting and Waiting 149, 150 

Resurrection Life, The Arbu- 
tus a Suggestion of 146 

Reunion with Loved Ones, 12, 13 
"Revelations,'" Whittier's 

poem, quoted 117 

Reverence for God 134 

u Rhapsody of Life's Progress, 
A," E. B. Browning's poem, 86 

Rhodes, Cecil, Story of 282 

Rich, but a Beggar 290 

Pavements. 130, 131 

Richelieu, Cardinal, Story of, 132 
Riches, Danger of Poverty or 

Great 64 



PAGE 

Riches, From Poverty to 187 

Temptations of 12 

Richmond, Capture of 217 

Right and Stubborness, Dif- 
ference between 269, 270 

Righteous Awards 59 

Righteousness 23 

Rights,The Growth of Human, 132 
Riley, James Whitcomb, quo- 
tations from 220, 364 

" Ringing Rocks," near Potts- 
town 29, 30 

Road Home, The 317 

Robin Redbreast, Legend of.. 134 
Robinson, Kenneth, on Negro 

Soldiers at Santiago 230 

Rock of Ages, The 17, 363 

Roosevelt, Col. Theodore, and 

his Spectacles 343 

Anecdote of 269 

Ropes Made from Spider-web, 352 

Roses in Winter 345 

Rossetti, C, quotations from, 

31, 42, 177, 201, 334 
Rothschild, Nathan Mayer, 

Anecdote of 335 

at Waterloo, Story of 254 

Royal Tenderness 359, 360 

Royalty, Rejected 235, 236 

Tattooed 40, 41 

Rum, Bacteria of 120 

Russell, Maud, quotation 

from 380 

Rychnowski, Francis, Discov- 
ery Made by 305 

Sabbath Sunshine, The 366 

Sacrifice,Greatnessof Christ's, 110 
Safe, Apache Indians and the 

Paymaster's 299, 300 

Sailing Under False Colors, 

306, 307 

St. Paul's Cathedral, Com- 
munion Service of 75 

Saints, Nameless 350 

Saloon, Prayer-meeting and, 

143, 144 
Misnamed the Poor Man's 

Club 351 

Saloons, Evils Wrought by, 189. 351 

Salt, The Saving 60, 61 

Lake, Great, Drying Up, 287 
Samory, Dethroned African 

Monarch 66 

Sampson, Admiral, Story of, 194 

Sanctimoniousness 139 

Sand, Building on 252 

Sangster, Margaret, quotations 
from 180, 247 



396 Poetry and Morals 



PAGE 

Sankey, Ira D., Story of 121 

Santiago, Heroism of Negro 

Soldiers at 230 

Save the Fragments 336, 337 

Saving Others 75 

the Fragments 138, 139 

Savior, A Personal 330, 331 

Scandal-mongers and Gossip- 

ers 33 

Scarecrows, The Devil's 240 

Schley, Admiral, Story of 220 

Schumann, Dr., Adventure of, 190 
Schurman, Jacob Gould, Early 

Struggles of 253 

Scituate, Mass., Channel at, . 342 

Scott, General, Story of 218 

"Sea and the Cloud, 11 poem, 

quoted 314-316 

The Restlessness of the 30 

Searchlights, Use of 112 

Secret Alliances 331 

Place, The, poem by W. 

C. Gannett, quoted 342 

Sin 45, 46 

Seeing Ourselves as Others 

See Us 7, 8 

Seeth, Julius, Lion-tamer 118 

Seizing Opportunity 80, 81 

Self concentration, Power of, 377 

Self control, Necessity of 16 

Self-denial, What is Gained 

by It 118 

Self indulgence, The Wrecks of, 226 

Self-reliance 81 

Self-surrender 30, 31 

Service, Joy and 218 

Love's Willing 321, 322 

Shining and 81, 82 

to God in Little Things .... 83 
Serving God in Little Things, 83 

Setting, A Graceful 179, 180 

Shackles,Knocking Off the,146, 147 
Shakespeare, quotations from, 
21, 53, 61, 83, 93, 106, 116, 131, 142, 
160, 228, 251, 322 
Shawl of Empress of Russia,210, 21 1 

Shepherd, Faithful 354 

Shine After Cloud 310 

Shining and Service 81, 82 

Shipwreck, Danger of Eter- 
nal 374 

Shoemaker, Mr. Gladstone 

and the Poor 80, 81 

Shoulders of Steel 304 

Sight, The Inner 240, 241 

Sigsbee, Captain. Story of 246 

Sin Dormant in Man 149 

Excuses for, Blacker than 
the Original Sin 106 



PAGE 

Sin, Horrid Disease of 142 

Influence of, on Character, 309 
Knocking Off the Shackles 

of 147 

Poorhouse of 187 

Secret 45, 46 

the Assassin of Cheerful- 
ness 117 

The Blinding Power of ... . 116 

The Fascination of 10, 249 

The Lockstep of i90, 191 

The Nemesis of 316, 317 

The Poison of 349, 350 

The Treachery of 219 

The Wages of 78 

Ugliness of 69 

Singing, Reasons for 351, 352 

Societies 296 

Sinner, Every, a Captive 66 

Sinners Refuse to Receive 
God's Inheritance 236 

Sin's Dearh-Gulch 270 

Vagabonds 370, 371 

Sins, Beware of Little 93, 94 

Secret 331, 332 

The Tragedy of Skulking, 

327, 328 

"Sir Launfal," J. R. Lowell's, 

quoted 141 

Sister's Love, A 42 

Skeleton in the Closet, The ... 28 
Skulking Sins,The Tragedy of, 327 
Skull-banjo, Musical Instru- 
ment Called the 9 

Sky, The Manners of the 1 

Sky-born Music, A 226. 227 

Skylark, The 160, 161 

Slander, Shakespeare's De- 
scription of 251 

Slanderers, Assassins of Char- 
acter 172 

Slaves, White 813 

Slosson, Mr., Experiment of, 202 

Smiles and Frowns ( J7 

Smithson, James, Anecdote 

of 314 

Snake-bird, Description of the, 

101, 102 

Sobriety and Health 188, 189 

Soldier's Hardihood, The 152 

Soldiers of Christ 217, 218, 373 

Song of Immortality 166, 167 

' ' Song of Trust, " by G. Curtis, 

quoted 211 

Song. The Changing 369 

The Power of Christian... 121 
The Sweetest, on Earth is 

Mother's 303 

the World Needs, The, 338, 339 



Topical Index 



397 



PAGE 

Sonship to God, Man's 74 

Sorrow, A Prolific Cause of Do- 
mestic 89, 90 

The Blessings of 266, 267 

Sorrows and Trials, Reasons 

for Thanksgiving for. 133 

Soul, Freedom of the 99 

Refreshing the 35 

The Courageous 294 

The Orchids of the 224 

The Raiment of the.... 210, 211 

The Sick 142 

The Value of a 46 

Youth of the 85, 86 

Soulac, Germany, Buried 

Church at 241 

Soul's Conversion, the 182, 183 

Souls, Glowing 29, 30 

Sow's Milk as Nourishment 

for Babes , 15, 16 

Sparing the Father to Save 

the Boys 231 

Speaking Kindly, Delay in. . . . 281 
Specters of the Mind, Facing 

the 68 

Spenser, Edmund, quotation 

from 171 

Spider-webs, Useful 352 

"Spinning," H. H. Jackson's 

poem 43, 44 

Spirit, A Greedy 15, 16 

of Christmas 161 

Sweetness of 92 

The Beggar's 290 

The Home 163, 164 

Spiritual Atmosphere 20, 21 

Blessings, Thanksgiving 

for 122 

Empire, Augmenters of . .. 243 

Fare 152 

Manhood, Development of, 100 

Pearl-fields 152, 153 

Spite, The Uselessness of. . .24, 25 
Springtime, Blossoming of 

Heavenly 166 

Spur of Love, The 209 

Stale Food 31, 32 

Standpoint, The Importance 

of the 184 

Stephen, Martyrdom of. . ,.268, 269 
Stetson, Charlotte, quotation 

from 179 

Steve, the Farmer Boy, Story 

of 275, 276 

Stevenson, R. L., quotation 

from 186 

Stiles, Kate R., quotation from 369 
Stoddard, Richard Henry, 
quotation from 257 



PAGE 

Stories, Evils of Malicious 172 

" Story of a Tree, A, ' ' poem by 
Mrs. Farningham, quoted, 

371, 372 

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, quo- 
tation from 195 

Strength for Christ's Service, 152 

Strong Men, Value of 32 

Struggle of Life, The 6, 7 

Stubbornness and Right, Dif- 
ference between 269, 270 

Submission to Will of God, 

Perfect Peace in 31 

Success by Oppression 325 

Failure and 281 

Obedience Better than 368 

Sugarcoating the Devil 61 

" Sumideros " of Arizona, 251, 252 

Sunshine, The Sabbath 366 

Superior to Trifles 124 

Swarm of Butterflies, The, 142, 143 

Sweating, Character 129 

Sweetest Song on Earth is 

Mother's, The.... , 303 

Sweets, Nourishing 17, 18 

Sympathy for Others 140, 367 

Power of 185 

Take Time to Fly 36, 37 

Talen s, God's Purpose in Our, 53 

Taming Lions 118 

Taste of Heaven, A, 245, 246 

Tattooed Royalty 40, 41 

Tea, Flavor of, Lost by Sea 

Transportation 228 

Tear, Analysis of a 314 

Tears of the Great 361, 362 

Telegraph-pole, Woodpeckers 

and the 45 

Telegraphy, Wireless 67, 68 

Telescope, A Far-sighted 380 

Telfener, Count, Career of, 

280, 281 

Temper, The Heroic 157, 158 

Temple in Our Breasts, The. . . 353 
Temptation, Conquering. . .55, 56 
Temptations Overcome by 

God's Grace 55 

Tenderness, Example of Roy- 
al 360 

Tennyson, Anecdote of 322 

Quotations from.. 3, 18, 32, 

39, 68, 77, 235, 268, 309 
Testimony of the Life, The, 34, 35 
Tetanus or Lockjaw, Cause of, 245 
"Thankful Heart, A," poem 

by E. I. Tupper, quoted 357 

Thanksgiving Column, The, 



398 Poetry and Morals 



PAGE 

Thanksgiving for Sorrow and 

Trials 133 

for Spiritual Blessings 122 

to God 334 

Thaxter, Celia, quotation from, 348 
Thayer, William Roscoe, quo- 
tation from 340 

Things, Glory of Common .... 270 

Gold Will Not Buy 74 

too Deep for Analysis 314 

" This World is All a Fleeting 
Show," poem by Moore, 

quoted 38 

Thorns, The Crown of 276, 277 

Thoughts, Evil, Power of, 

172, 173, 352 
"Three Crosses, The," poem 

on, quoted 210 

"Threnody," quotation from 

Emerson's 1 

Tide, The Rising 312 

Tigers, Man-eaters 32, 33 

Timber on Christ's Carpenter 

Bench, Mankind as 373 

Time, Care of 342 

Only a Day's March into, 

379, 380 

Saving the Fragments of, 336 

The Importance of 72 

The Passing of 162 

" Tit-Bits," Origin of Paper 

Called 83 

Titian, Career of 312 

Titicaca, Lake, Peculiar Qual- 
ity of 286 

To-day, Work for 341 

Toil, Inspiration to 256 

To-morrow, The Delusion of. . Ill 
Tongue, The Guerrilla War- 
fare of the 172 

Torches, The Lord's 53 

Touch, Out of, with Christ. ... 217 
Tragedy of Skulking Sins, 

The 327, 328 

u Trailing Arbutus, The," Dr. 

F. H. Prather's, quoted 146 

Training Birds to Sing 167 

for Great Deeds 340, 341 

Transitoriness of Earthly 

Things 38, 39 

Treachery of Sin, The ... 219 

Treadmill of Fashion, The, 207, 208 
Trench, Richard, quotations 

from..> 133, 271 

Trials, Bearing Up Under. 60 

Help in Midst of 276 

Intensify Happiness. ..... 203 

of Life, The Afterward of, 
Full of Peace 310 



Trifles, Superior to 124 

Trouble, Borrowing 109, 110 

Troubles that do Not Come, 144, 145 

True Culture 96 

" True Rest," Lucy Fletcher's 

poem, quoted 207 

Trust, A Life of 211, 212 

in God 44 

Love and 307, 308 

Perfect, in God 301 

Truth and Honesty Universal 

Coin 261 

Tung-Chou, China, Military 

Students of 72 

Tupper, E. I., quotation from, 357 
"Two Monks, The," poem by 

A. A. Bragdon, quoted, 243, 244 
" Two Sides of It, The," poem 

by P. Leonard, quoted. ..... 376 

Typewriter, Story of Girl. .59, 60 

Uhland, quotation from 103 

Unexpected Human Gold 142 

United Energy 84 

"Unnoticed Bound, The," 

quoted 148 

Unseen, The Permanence of 

the 47, 48 

Unselfishness 320, 321 

Beauty of ....243, 244 

The Blessings of 94 

The Glory of 125 

Useful Spider-webs 352 

Uselessness of Spite, The ... 24, 25 

Vagabonds, Sin's 370, 371 

Valiant, The Truly 228 

Value of an Opportunity, The, 254 

of a Soul, The 46 

of Strong Men 32 

of Things, The Relative, 

232, 233 

Values, Appreciating 159, 160 

Van Dyke, Henry, quotations 

from 89, 353 

Verities, Permanence of the 

Unseen , 47 

Victoria, Queen, Story of 361 

Victory of Christ, The Coming, 254 

Over Cowardice 155 

View, The Point of 62, 63 

Vineta, Sunken City of, Legend, 25 

Violin, A Rescued 64, 65 

Voice, Human Beings Individ- 

alizedby Pitch of .. ...86, 87 
The Deeper 39 

Waddell, Major, Story of Him- 
alaya Travel by 234 



Topical Index 



399 



PAGE 

Wages of Sin, The 78 

Waiting, Always Harder than 

Working 2*3, 224 

Resting and 149, 150 

War-drums shall be Still, 

When 71, 72 

Warfare, of the Tongue, Guer- 
rilla 172 

Waring, Anna L., quotation 

from.... 365 

Wastage of Life, The 282 

Waste in Modern Cities 139 

of Emotion 277 

Wasted Nerves 301-303 

Watson, Elizabeth Loe, quo- 
tation from 166 

Jean, quotation from 217 

Wayside Caches 87, 88 

Weak, Helping the 317, 318 

Spot, Elijah's 7? 

Wealth, Corrupt Use of . . . .82, 83 

in Appreciation 262, 263 

of the World for All 88 

The Annoyances of 11, 12 

The Limitations of 6 

"Weary in Well-doing, " quo- 
tation from C. Rossetti's, 30, 31 

Weaver, The Blind 240, 241 

Weeping Children, The 362 

"Wellington, Ode to," Ten- 
nyson's 32 

Wesley, Charles, quotation 

from 138 

"When I Have Time," poem, 

quoted 163 

"When I Went Out to Glean," 

poem by A. Barr, quoted ... 242 
" When My Mother Tucks Me 
In," Betty Garland's poem, 

quoted 157 

"When the Birds Go North 
Again," E. Higginson's 

poem, quoted 51 

When War-drums shall be 

Still 71, 72 

"When Wilt Thou Save the 

Ppople? " poem uotedq 214 

White Slaves 313 

Whittier, J. G., quotations 
from, 49, 70, 94, 117, 231, 

247, 272, 301, 856, 367 
Poem, addressed to, by O. 

W. Holmes 233 

Wicked Excuses 106 

Wilcox, E. W., quotations 

from 189, 238, 291 

Wilhelm, Emperor, Story of, 

150, 151 



PAGE 

Will of God, Perfect Peace in 

Submission to 31 

Williams, Roger, Anecdote of, 43 

Story of the Convict 110 

Willis, Nellie, quotation from, 

223, 264 

Wind-blown Lives 311 

Wireless Telegraphy 67, 68 

Wiser Being Good than Bad. . 85 

Wichout Spot or Blemish 262 

Wizard, A Wonderful 232 

Woman's Side of Home Life. . 101 
Wood, Anecdote of General, 13, 14 
Woodpeckers and the Tele- 
graph-pole « 45 

Woods, Bertha, quotation 

from. ... 218 

Word, The Winged 118, 119 

Words, The Man Behind the. . 186 

Value of Kind 374. 375 

Wordsworth, William, quota- 
tions from. .. .27, 47, 92, 127, 283 

Work, Common, Glorified 113 

Worker, Comfort for the 

Christian 69 

or Pauper, Which 179 

Works, Prayer Without 73 

Prayer and 208, 309 

World Bio ves, The 42, 43 

" World Soul," quotation from 

Emerson's 9 

Worldliness, The Danger of, 

114, 115 

Worms in the Books 173, 174 

Worship, Fireside 108 

Power of 79 

Worth, Real... 275, 276 

Saving 19 

Worth, Stone for Monument of 

General 262 

Wreck, Ospreys Nesting in a, 

198, 199 

Wrecks of Self-indulgence, 
The 226 

"Wrestling Jacob," Charles 
Wesley's poem, quoted 138 

Wrongdoing, Confession of .. . 43 

Young, Annie H., quotation 
from 310 

Youth, Love Renewing 9 

Make the Most of . . . . .... 257 

of the Soul 85, 86 

What It Ought to Be 143 

Zangwill, Hebrew Novelist.... 184 

Zinc, A City of 165, 166 

Zosimus, Greek historian 2 



Books by 

DR. LOUIS ALBERT BANKS. 



Christ and His Friends* 

A Collection of Revival Sermons, Simple and Direct, and Wholly 
Devoid of Oratorical Artifice, but Rich in Natural Eloquence, and 
Burning with Spiritual Fervor. The author has strengthened 
and enlivened them with many illustrations and anecdotes. 
12mo, Cloth, Gilt Top, Rough Edges. Price, $1.50; post-free. 

National Presbyterian, Indianapolis: "One of the most marked revivals 
attended their delivery, resulting in hundreds of conversions. Free from extrav- 
agance and fantasticism, in good taste, dwelling upon the essentials of religious 
faith, their power has not been lost in transference to the printed page." 

New York Observer: " These sermons are mainly hortatory . . . always 
aiming at conviction or conversion. They abound in fresh and forcible illus- 
trations. . . . They furnish a fine specimen of the best way to reach the popular 
ear, and may be commended as putting the claims of the Gospel upon men's at- 
tention in a very direct and striking manner. No time is wasted in rhetorical 
ornament, but every stroke tells upon the main point." 



The Fisherman and His Friends* 

A Companion Volume to " Christ and His Friends," consisting of 
Thirty-one Stirring Revival Discourses, full of Stimulus and Sug- 
gestion for Minis ters, Bible class Teachers, and all Christian 
Workers and Others who Desire to become Proficient in the 
Supreme Capacity of Winning Souls to Christ. They furnish a 
rich store of fresh spiritual inspiration, their subjects being strong, 
stimulating, and novel in treatment, without being sensational or 
elaborate. They were originally preached by the author in a 
successful series of revival meetings, which resulted in many 
conversions. 12mo, Cloth, Gilt Top. Price, $1.50; post-free. 

Bishop John F. Hurst: "It is a most valuable addition to our devotional 
literature." 

New York Independent : " There is no more distinguished example of the 
modern people's preacher in the American pulpit to-day than Dr. Banks. This 
volume fairly thrills and rocks with the force injected into its utterance.' 1 '' 



BOOKS BY DR. LOUIS ALBERT BANKS — Continued. 



Paul and His Friends* 

A companion volume to " Christ and His Friends," " The Fisher- 
man and His Friends," and "John and His Friends," being sim- 
ilarly bound and arranged. The book contains thirty-one stir- 
ring revival sermons delivered in a special series of revival ser- 
vices at the First M. E. Church, Cleveland. 12mo, Cloth, Gilt 
Top, Rough Edges. Price, $1.50. 

Inter Ocean, Chicago: "The addresses are markedly practical, eloquent, 
earnest, and persuasive. Dr. Banks will especially interest the young. His 
illustrations are apt and pointed, and he gathers his facts from the wide range of 
literature past and present." 

John and His Friends* 

Thirty-three clear, straight, and forceful revival sermons, texts 
from the Gospel of John. They are of the same general charac- 
ter and excellence as the sermons contained in the three preced- 
ing volumes of this series. A companion volume to "Paul and 
His Friends," "The Fisherman and His Friends," and "Christ 
and His Friends." 12mo, Cloth, Gilt Top, Rough Edges, 297 
pages. Cover Design in Gold, Bronze, and Black. Price, $1.50. 

The Burlington Hawk=Eye, Burlington, Iowa: "A very gracious revival 
of religion was awakened by their delivery." 

The Bookseller Newsdealer, and Stationer, New York: "Those who 
have read Dr. Banks's previous books need not be told that these sermons are 
original and practical and full of interesting illustrations and anecdotes.'" 

Philadelphia Evening Item: "Revival literature has seldom if ever 
received so large a contribution from one man." 

David and His Friends* 

Thirty-one forceful revival sermons similar in general character 
to those in the preceding volumes of the " Friends " series. Texts 
from Samuel and the Psalms. A companion volume to " Christ 
and His Friends," etc. 12mo, Cloth, 320 pages, Gilt Top, Rough 
Edges. Price $1.50. 

The Christian Guide, Louisville: "Will be sure of a hearty welcome from 
a multitude of preachers and religious workers who have found the preceding 
volumes so helpful and inspiring." 

The Outlook, New York: " Evangelical, ethical, pointed with apt personal 
interest and narrative, every one of these sermons is a well-aimed arrow." 

Chicago Times=Herald : " The sermons are not in the least orations, nor 
is their power in formal argument. It is rather in the power there is in state- 
ment and in pertinent illustration." 

Hartford Courant : " These are the sort of sermons to be read at home, or 
even by a lay reader in the absence of the clergyman, for they are sufficiently 
graphic to dispense with a personal exponent." 

The Christian Advocate, Detroit : "They are practical and are illus- 
trated with everyday incidents. The author finds very striking subjects for his 
discourses. 



BOOKS BY DR. LOUIS ALBERT BANKS— Continued. 



The Christian Gentleman* 

A volume of original and practical addresses to young men. The 
addresses were originally delivered to large and enthusiastic 
audiences of men, in Cleveland, at the Young Men's Christian 
Association Hall. 12mo, Buckram. Price, 75 cents. 

My Young Man* 

Practical and straightforward talks to young men. They are 
devoted to the consideration of the young man in his relationships 
as a son, a brother, a member of society, a lover, a husband, a 
citizen, a young man and his money, and the young man as him- 
self. 12mo, Cloth, Cover Design. Price, 75 cents. 

Central Christian Advocate, St. Louis, Mo.: "There are ten of them — 
brief, pointed, practical, luminous with illustrations and with poetical citations." 

Hero Tales from Sacred Story. 

The romantic stories of bible characters retold in graphic style, 
with modern parallels and striking applications. Richly illus- 
trated with 19 full-page illustrations from famous paintings. 
12mo, Cloth, Gilt Top, Cover Design. Price, $1.50. 

Christian Work, New York: " One can not imagine a better book to put 
into the hands of a young man or young woman than this.'" 

The Saloon-Keeper's Ledger. 

The business and financial side of the drink question. 12mo, 
Cloth. Price, 75 cents. 

The Christian Herald, Detroit: " The discourses are the masterpieces of 
an expert, abounding in apt illustrations and invincible logic, sparkling with 
anecdote, and scintillating with unanswerable facts." 

Sermon Stories for Boys and Girls* 

Short Stories of great interest, with which are interwoven les- 
sons of practical helpfulness for young minds. 12mo, Cloth, 
Artistic Cover Design, Illustrated. Price, $1.00. 

Christian Advocate, New York: "They are expressed in the freshness 
and simplicity of child language." 

The Burlington Hawk=Eye : "He catches the eyes and ears of his hear- 
ers by bright little stories about animals, events in current life, and interesting 
features of nature, and then with rare skill, makes each of these stories carry a 
helpful message." 

(ilobe, Toronto, Canada: "There are quickening tales told of Lincoln's 
humanity, and one of General Lee, who imperilled his life under fire by pausing 
to replace a nest of young birds dislodged by a shell." 

Religious Herald, Hartford, Conn. : " The book is a character guide-book 
which must prove of inestimable assistance to mothers, teachers, and pastors." 



BOOKS BY DR. LOUIS ALBERT BANKS — Continued. 



Seven Times Around Jericho* 

Seven Strong and Stirring Temperance Discourses, in which Deep 
Enthusiasm is Combined with Rational Reasoning — A Refreshing 
Change from the Conventional Temperance Arguments. Pathetic 
incidents and stories are made to carry most convincingly their 
vital significance to the subjects discussed. They treat in broad 
manner various features of the question. 12mo, Handsomely 
Bound in Polished Buckram. Price, 75 cents. 

Herald and Presbyter, Cincinnati: " The book is sure to be a power for 
good. The discourses have the true ring." 

Jersey City News : " Such able discourses as these of Dr. Banks will won- 
derfully help the great work of educating and arousing the people to their duty." 

Revival Quiver* 

A Pastor's Record of Four Revival Campaigns. 12mo, Cloth, 
$1.50. 

This book is, in some sense, a record of personal experiences in revival 
work. It begins with "Planning for a Revival," followed by "Methods in 
Revival Work." This is followed by brief outlines of some hundred or more 
sermons. They have points to them, and one can readily see that they were 
adapted to the purpose designed. The volume closes with "A Scheme of City 
Evangelization." It seems to us a valuable book, adapted to the wants of many 
a preacher and pastor. 

White Slaves ; or, The Oppression of the Worthy Poor* 

Fifty Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $1.50. 

The Rev. Dr. Banks has made a personal and searching investigation into 
the homes of the poorer classes, and in the "White Slaves" the results are 
given. The work is illustrated from photographs taken by the author; and the 
story told by pen and camera is startling. It should be borne in mind that the 
author's visits were made to the homes of the worthy poor, who are willing to 
work hard for subsistence, and not to the homes of the criminal and vicious. 

The Christ Dream, 

12mo, Cloth, $1.20. 

A series of twenty-four sermons in which illustrations of the Christ ideal 
are thrown upon the canvas, showing here and there individuals who have risen 
above the selfish, and measure up to the Christ dream. In tone it is optimistic, 
and sees the bright side of life. 

Common Folks' Religion* 

A Volume of Sermons. 12mo, Cloth, $1.50. 

Boston Journal: "Dr. Banks presents Christ to the 'common people, 1 

and preaches to every-day folk the glorious every-day truths of the Scripture. 
The sermons are original, terse, and timely, full of reference to current topics, 
and have that earnest quality which is particularly needed to move the people 
for whom they were spoken." 



BOOKS BY DR. LOUIS ALBERT BANKS— Continued. 



Anecdotes and Morals. 

Five hundred and fifty-Time attractive and forceful lessons which 
may be profitably utilized by the public speaker to freshly illus- 
trate divine truth. They are almost entirely composed of inci- 
dents, happening throughout the world within the past few 
months. 12mo, Buckram, Gilt Top, Uncut Edges, 463 pages. 
Price, $1.50. 

Boston Journal: "More than half a thousand anecdotes, some witty, all 
pointed and instructive, make up this unusual book. His anecdotes all have a 
purpose, and are prettily expressed." 

The Globe=Democrat, St. Louis: "The index to the contents and the sys- 
tem of cross-references make the stories immediately available to whomever 
wishes to use them in illustration." 

The Lutheran Observer, Lancaster, Pa.: "They are aptly related and 
always enforce the truths intended." 

Herald and Presbyter, Cincinnati: "Altho there are so many selections, 
each new page contains some original lessons and a constant variety is main- 
tained throughout." 

The Christian Observer, Louisville, Ky.: "In this collection are found 
many anecdotes that are striking, well put, and in good taste." 

Poetry and Morals* 

Clear, straight, and forceful lessons emphasized by familiar pas- 
sages of prose and poetry. The author has arranged several 
hundred simple truths in paragraphs appropriately headed in 
full-face type. The truths are explained in a few terse sentences, 
and then a verse, entire poem, or prose selection having direct 
bearing on the truth is added, forming a perfect storehouse of 
suggestive material for the preacher and writer. A companion 
volume to "Anecdotes and Morals." 12mo, Cloth, 399 Pages, 
$1.50. 

A Year's Prayer-Meeting Talks* 

Fifty-two suggestive and inspiring talks for prayer-meetings. 
Helpful material is provided for a whole year's weekly meetings. 
The talks have been already used by Dr. Banks in a most success- 
ful series of services. The author's well-known skill in present- 
ing the old truths in bright and striking ways is evidenced in 
these interesting talks. The book is designed to be a right-hand 
aid for preachers and religious workers. 12mo, Cloth. Price $1.00. 

Christian Work, New York: " The reader will be sure to be attracted and 
helped by such talks as these." 

Baptist Outlook, Indianapolis: "Anecdotes, stories, bright similes, and 
poetical quotations enliven the talks." 

Boston Times : "The subjects are treated in original ways, but never in a 
sensational or unwholesome manner." 



BOOKS BY DR. LOUIS ALBERT BANKS — Continued. 



The People's Christ* 

A Volume of Sermons and Other Addresses and Papers. 12mo, 
Cloth, $1.25. 

New York Observer : " These sermons are excellent specimens of dis- 
courses adapted to reach the masses. Their manner of presenting Christian 
truth is striking. They abound in all kinds of illustration, and are distinguished 
by a bright, cheerful tone and style, which admirably fit them for making per- 
manent impression." 



Heavenly Trade-Winds* 

A Volume of Sermons. 12mo, Cloth, $1.25. 

From author's preface: "The sermons included in this volume have all 
been delivered in the regular course of my ministry in the Hanson-Place 
Methodist Episcopal Church, Brooklyn. They have been blessed of God in 
confronting the weary, giving courage to the faint, arousing the indifferent, and 
awakening the sinful." 



The Honeycombs of Life* 

A Volume of Sermons. 12mo, Cloth, $1.50. 

Most of the discourses are spiritual honeycombs, means of refreshment and 
illumination by the way. " The Soul's Resources," " Cure for Anxiety," "At 
the Beautiful Gate," "The Pilgrimage of Faith," and " Wells in the Valley of 
Baca," are among his themes. The volume is well laden with evangelical truth, 
and breathes a holy inspiration. This volume also includes Dr. Banks's 
Memorial tribute to Lucy Stone and his powerful sermon in regard to the Chinese 
in America, entitled " Our Brother in Yellow." 



Immortal Hymns and Their Story. 

The Narrative of the Conception and Striking Experiences of 
Blessing Attending the Use of some of the World's Greatest 
Hymns. With 21 Portraits and 25 full-page half-tone illustra- 
tions by Norval Jordan. 8vo, Cloth, Gilt Top, $3.00. 



An Oregon Boyhood* 

The story of Dr. Banks's boyhood in Oregon in the pioneer days, 
including innumerable dramatic, romantic, and exciting experi- 
ences of frontier life. 12mo, Cloth. Tastefully bound and 
printed. Illustrated. Price $1.25. 



FINK & WAGNALLS CO., Publishers, 30 Lafayette PI., NEW YORK. 



